.htaccess isn"t working, please advise

I have hosting with 1&1 and I can't get .htaccess to work. I've called the
tech support but they were pretty clueless.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^(TRACE|TRACK)
RewriteRule .* - [F]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://mydomain/.*$ [NC] [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.mydomain/.*$ [NC] [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule
..*\.(zip|Zip|ZIp|ZIP|zIp|zIP|ziP|rar|Rar|RAr|RAR|rAr|rAR|ra R|7z|7Z|jar|exe|jpe?g|gif|bmp|png|wav|mp3|wmv|avi|mpeg|mov)$
http://www.mydomain.com/hotlink.htm [L]


I've even tried a simpler version provided by their FAQ (1&1) and it doesn't
work either
I'm testing with a plain old zip file and when I type the url directly I can
download it just fine when if the rewrite was working I should be redirected
(atleast on the first .htaccess file I tried)


RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://mydomain/.*$ [NC] [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.mydomain/.*$ [NC] [OR]
RewriteRule .*\.(gif|GIF|jpg|JPG|bmp|BMP|wav|mp3|wmv|avi|mpeg|zip)$ - [F]

Thanks