This article is intended for customers that want to test their websites before pointing DNS to their server. The method used in this article involves editing the HOSTS file on the customer's local computer.
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To test your website before DNS propagation is through you can edit the HOSTS file on your local computer. Your computer will use the entries in your HOSTS file before it looks up the current information in DNS. This walkthrough will explain how to edit the HOSTS file on Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 computers as well as on Apple Mac OS9 and OSX machines.
Windows:
- Locate the HOSTS file on your computer. Depending on the operating system you have, the following are locations you may be able to find this.
Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/2008 or Windows 10 C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts Windows 95/98/Me c:windowshosts
- Open this file with notepad or wordpad. In it near the end you will see two columns of information, the first containing IP addresses and the second containing host names. The only one in a windows hosts file by default looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost
We are going to add lines just underneath the existing line that will point request from your computer to your new server's IP address. Suppose the IP address of your new server is 10.10.10.53 and the domain name you want to test is www.my-domain.com, you'd make a two line entry like this:
10.10.10.53 my-domain.com
10.10.10.53 www.my-domain.com
- Save the file with these new entries and close all open browsers. You can now go to either http://www.my-domain.com or http://my-domain.com to test your new server.
- When finished testing your new server don't forget to reopen the HOSTS file to remove the lines you added above.
Mac OS9:
- Look in System Folder:Preferences, and in the System Folder itself. See if you have a file named "Hosts". If not, create one in a text editor.
- Open this file with any text editor. In it near the end you will see two columns of information, the first containing IP addresses and the second containing host names. There might be an existing line that looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost
We are going to add lines just underneath that line that will point request from your computer to your new server's IP address. Suppose the IP address of your new server is 64.207.100.100 and the domain name you want to test is www.my-domain.com, you'd make a two line entry like this:
10.10.10.53 my-domain.com
10.10.10.53 www.my-domain.com
- Save the file with these new entries and close all open browsers. You can now go to either http://www.my-domain.com or http://my-domain.com to test your new server.
- When finished testing your new server don't forget to reopen the HOSTS file to remove the lines you added above.
Mac OSX
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NOTES:
- Revion.com does not support this configuration. We are providing this information to you as a courtesy. We are not Microsoft Support Technicians so you need to use this work around at your own risk. Always, always, always back up your files
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