WordPress Rewrite rules and access to Stats

Hi,

I have WordPress 1.5 installed and use “/category/postname/” as my permalink structure. (percentage signs removed for this post)

My stats are access via:
http://www.mydomain.com/stats
WP is installed in the root of my site and I have the following plugins activated:
Custom Posts Per Page, Obfuscate E-mail, Recent Comments, Recent Posts, Theme Switcher and Preview Theme.

I have been unable to access my stats and my host’s Support added the following lines to my mod rewrite rules in the .htaccess file:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats/(.*)$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/failed_auth.html$
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]

This had the desired effect of allowing me to access the stats but also had the undesirable effect of stopping ALL links/pages except my index page from working!

Removing the last line, from the three above,allows access to the pages but does not allow stats access. Currently I am using two .htaccess files and renaming them when I want to check my stats!

I tried posting on my host’s forums but no luck so far.
I was wondering whether anybody had a better solution?

TIA
Planetphillip

Here are the rules used in my original .htaccess file:
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [S=54]
RewriteRule ^(links)/trackback/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&tb=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(links)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(links)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(links)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(links)/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(always-looking-for-2)/trackback/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&tb=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(always-looking-for-2)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(always-looking-for-2)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(always-looking-for-2)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(always-looking-for-2)/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(about)/trackback/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&tb=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(about)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(about)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(about)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(about)/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?pagename=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?&paged=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^comments/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^comments/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^comments/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?&paged=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/(.+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?s=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/(.+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?s=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/(.+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?s=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/(.+)/?$ /index.php?s=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^category/(.+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^category/(.+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^category/(.+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^category/(.+)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&paged=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&paged=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/?$ /index.php?year=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/([^/]+)/trackback/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&name=$2&tb=1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&name=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&name=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&name=$2&paged=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/([^/]+)/?([0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&name=$2&page=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/?$ /index.php?category_name=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress