I think the current version of WordPress doesn’t force you to have a .htaccess file. I remember the older versions needed you to have a .htaccess file if you want search engine friendly, longer URLs generated for your blog posts. Anyway, in order to stop WordPress comment spammers using the method mentioned in Banning a WordPress Spammer With .htaccess, even if you don’t have a .htaccess file in your root directory, create one using Notepad or any other text editor.
