A way to view your site before you move the domain to point to the website is through the use of a Hosts file. Every computer has a hosts file and you can edit this file to point a specific domain to your hosting package IP address.
The Hosts file basically acts as your computer's own nameserver and so will map a domain to an IP address just for your own computer.
The host file is located in different locations in different operating systems:
- Windows 7/8/8.1/10: C:
\windows\system32\drivers\etc\* - Linux and other Unix-like operating systems:
/etc - Mac OS 9 and earlier: System Folder: Preferences or System folder (format of the file may vary from Windows and Linux counterparts)
- Mac OS X:
/private/etc
Please note that on Windows, you may need to remove the 'Read Only' flag on the 'hosts' file itself.
You can edit this file with any basic text editor (eg. Notepad). There should be an entry in the file already for 'localhost' and you can copy the required format from this.
e.g.
127.0.0.1 localhost
81.17.252.145 mysite.com
81.17.252.145 www.mysite.com
The line break between the localhost entries, and entries you add is required in some operating systems.
Please note that some operating systems may require that the user be an administrator in order to be able to access the hosts file. The easiest way to do this is to run Notepad as Administrator as follows:
- Click the Start button and type notepad
- Right click on the notepad icon, and click "Run As Administrator" then open the host file as normal.
Additional Support
As always, should you require more assistance in relation to this issue, please contact our Helpdesk explaining your issue - and what you have done to this point, and we will be happy to assist you further.
Please see our full contact information, on our main website: Contact Us.
Alternatively, email help@blacknight.com for assistance.
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