Testing site with Hosts file
You may want to view your domain before the DNS changes propagate or you are testing your domain before you point your domain name to us. You can achieve this by editing the hosts file on your computer.
To edit your hosts file on Windows 7 / Vista, Mac OS X and Unix based systems, follow the respective instructions.
Windows 7 or Vista
1 Browse to 'Start' -> 'All Programs' -> 'Accessories'.
2 Right mouse click 'Notepad' and select 'Run as Administrator'.
3 Click 'File' -> 'Open'.
4 Browse to 'C:' -> 'Windows' -> 'System32' -> 'Drivers' -> 'etc'.
5 Change the file down file menu from 'Text Documents (*.txt)' to 'All Files (*.*)'.
6 Select 'hosts' and click 'Open'.
7 In your hosts file, you may already see a line as such:
127.0.0.1 localhostWhat you would need to do is add a line at the end of your hosts file with the server IP that we have provided you (replacing IPADDRESS shown below) along with your actual domain name.
- 127.0.0.1 localhost
- IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com
Information Please check that the line you've written does not start with a # character because this will not work.
8 Close Notepad and 'Save' the changes when prompted.
Mac OS X
1 Go into 'Applications' -> 'Utilities' -> 'Terminal'.
2 Open the hosts by typing on the Terminal that you have just opened by typing:
sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
3 Type your user password when prompted.
4 Append your new mappings at the bottom of the document (replacing IPADDRESS with the server IP address). You can navigate the file using the arrow keys.
IPADDRESS www.your-domain.com
5 Press control-o to save the file. Press enter on the filename prompt, and control-x to exit the editor.
UNIX On Unix-based systems
1 You can find the hosts file at /etc/hosts.
You will need to open the terminal (on most distributions is located at the following):
'Menu' > 'Applications' > 'Accessories' > 'Terminal'.
2 Follow steps 2 through 4 above Mac OS X to edit this file.
