htaccess not working

Hell I am trying to implement some mod_rewrite directives for a php web site I'm working on, and I can't get directives in the .htaccess file to be used.They work fine when placed in httpd.conf, so I know that mod_rewrite itself is working O开发者_高级运维K. I've not needed to use .htaccess before, so I think the problem is there.I know there are directives handling this, and I've checked that I have:

AllowOverride None <= If i set it to ALL I got Internal Server error
 AccessFileName  Already in http  named .htaccess

And if i set

<Directory /home/sitename/www>
 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
 AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Got error in httpd says AllowOverride Not allowed here So any clue what do i missed to get htaccess working