January 2020 - Due to a conflict between Mod_userdir (the "Temporary URL" site preview) and Mod_passenger (which is now installed on our servers for Node.js applications), we now recommend clients preview a new website by creating a Hosts file on your local computer. This is a straight-forward procedure, which should only take a few minutes.
Both Windows, Linux, and Mac computers use a Hosts file to map websites to IP addresses. If an entry exists in the local Hosts file, this will over-ride any DNS value from your Internet provider, thereby allowing you to preview a new website from your computer while the rest of the Internet sees the current/old website.
This is also useful if you have ordered a new domain name but it's still being processed by the domain registry. You can use a local Hosts file to point the domain name to the correct IP address, so the website is accessible for you locally and you can start development/design work. Please note our free AutoSSL service will only issue an SSL certificate when the domain name is fully registered, so in the mean time you should configure your website on http:// and not https://
In the below examples, we are using the website address examplewebsite.net and the IP address 192.168.12.34
Please change these for your own website values when creating the entry in your Hosts file!
The IP address for your website can be found in the email "New Account Info" sent when you signed up for hosting, or check the Services page in your client area, or ask our support team.
We recommend setting up a hosts file, on Windows using these instructions:
(1) Click on the Start button, type "notepad“ and press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER. Acknowledge the UAC dialog.
(2) Type CTRL+O. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc. Select "All Files“ in the bottom right corner.
(3) Now you see the hosts file. Select and open it.
(4) At the bottom of the file, add two new lines for your website www and non-www:
192.168.12.34 www.examplewebsite.net
192.168.12.34 examplewebsite.net
5) Make your changes and save it.
6) Go to www.examplewebsite.net in your browser and you will see the website served from the IP address you just specified!
On Macbook using these instructions:
(1) Open the Terminal application, type "sudo nano /etc/hosts" and enter your Mac password.
(2) Scroll to the bottom of the hosts file
(3) At the bottom, add two new lines for your website www and non-www:
192.168.12.34 www.examplewebsite.net
192.168.12.34 examplewebsite.net
(4) Save changes with CTRL+O, then enter to confirm, then exit the file with CTRL+X
(5) Go to www.examplewebsite.net in your browser and you will see the website served from the IP address you just specified!
Don't want to use this method for some reason?
Alternatively, we recommend setting up an alias/sub-domain to preview the website, for example https://dev.examplewebsite.net/
In cPanel you would create "dev.examplewebsite.net" under the Aliases page (NOT the Subdomains page), then at the current provider you would need to add a CNAME DNS record for dev pointing to the appropriate IP address (for example 192.168.12.34)
