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How can I view my site prior to DNS propagation?

If you need to preview or test your new ServeLink site prior to switching the DNS to point to our servers, there are two recommended methods.

1.  In the the server control panel use the "Site Preview" button.  This works well for viewing simple sites, but may have problems dealing with more advanced site functions such as adding products to a shopping cart for example.  In that case you can try this;

2.  On Windows XP find the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts - it doesn't have a file extension but if you double click on it you can choose to open in Notepad in the dialog box that appears. Simply add a line like the one highlighted below, substituting your site's IP address (you can find this in the client area) and the name of your site both with and without the www.  Make sure there is a space or two in between each of those entries.




Save the and close the file and your computer will now go directly to the ServeLink IP address you specified when you enter your site name in your browser.  Note that Internet Explorer will need to be closed and reopened for it to read the new information.

You can disable this entry quickly by inserting a # symbol at the start of the line if, for example you need to check back on your other site.  It's worth deleting the entry once you've finished testing, as it can cause some some confusion a year or two down the line if IP addresses change.


Tips & tricks

• Windows Vista is broadly similar, but you may not be allowed to make changes; this Microsoft support article 923947 may help.

• Spybot Search & Destroy sets the hosts file as "read only" which will again prevent changes, in that case right click on the hosts file icon before you open it, select "Properties", clear the "Read only" checkbox and press "OK".  Then continue with the steps above.

• We've come across one or two Windows machines where there has not been a hosts file, in which case there may be a file called hosts.sam that can be renamed, or you could just make a file in Notepad like the one shown here.

• You can also do this on a Mac.  For OS X open the Finder, in the Go menu select "Go to folder", type /etc as the folder name, choose hosts from the file list, double click and edit as in the Windows example above.  The format is the same.  You may need to do this as the root user, see here:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528?viewlocale%3Dde_DE%26locale%3Dde_DE