because of/due to (a reason):

There were many people who lost their lives due to the earthquake.
by (a method/way/means):

Teachers check if students understand by (means of) tests.

by (identifies the agent of the action, particularly in a passive sentence):

Who was this machine invented by?

(just for comparison, here's that as an active sentence without ):

Who invented this machine?

dependant on (when highlighting differences):

Lifestyles differ depending on the country.

and are effectively the same according to Daijirin, but
is somewhat more formal than according to Daijisen. I'll try to
break up your example sentence (and add one for ):

Because of a fire many forests burnt down.

An ox is taken by the horns and a man by word.

is slightly different (i.e. is used in the following example
because it's talking about a tsunami because of the earthquake):

There's no worry of a tsunami because of the earthquake this time.

modifies a noun, and both and modify a verb or an
adjective.
and are almost synonymous, although in the informal
context, is more usual than .