apache2 sends reply for / and redirect for ~<user> (setup Q)

[Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il>]

I set up apache2 to handle public_html dirs in home directories. Trying
to connect with telnet localhost 80 to make sure everything is ok when
I do
GET / HTTP/1.0

I get the standard apache2 reply (if you think this is a mistake ...)
If I try doing:

GET /~<user> HTTP/1.0

I get a Moved Permanently reply with the server's external
host-name. How do I set it up so that it works also for connections
from the localhost?