.htaccess ignored

Yes, I checked the Apache FAQ, but I am still confused,
and it doesn't work.

Below is a sample portion of my access.conf file.
What I want to do is deny all access to a users
home directory unless there is a .htaccess file
which allows access.

<Directory />
deny from all
AllowOverride None
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
order allow,deny
allow from <my firewall ip>
AuthType Basic
</Directory>

<DirectoryMatch ^/home/.*/www>
Options Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
AllowOverride FileInfo
</DirectoryMatch>

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>


In my .htaccess file, I have tried just:
<Directory /home/username/www>
allow from <an ip>
</Directory>

and just the line
allow from <ip>

I have tried commenting out the line for the files directive,
but no luck.

I know this is something simple I am missing, as I can plug in an
allow from <ip> into the directory match, and it works.

Tips please

--
V/R
Mike Starke