I have just signed up with a host for a hosting account which uses H-Sphere, what I wanted to know is can I view my website before DNS propagation?

I know in cpanel it is

http://servername.hostsdomain.com/~user

is there something similar for H-Sphere?

Yes, the normal way is like dNNN.uNNN.hostingcompany.com
the NNN is replaced with your domain and user numbers.
I would send e-mail to their support to figure out their way. But, in general, yes, H-SPhere does this, in more then one way.

Neofree

If you have an IP number, then you should be able to view the site like this:
xx.xx.xx.xx/index.html
(where xx.xx.xx.xx is your IP number of course).

If not, then you might have access via the host's URL together with your user name:
www.hostname.com/username/index.html
or with the host's IP:
xx.xx.xx.xx/username/index.html

Hopefully one of these methods might work.

BTW - I included the file (index.???) above since the web server (Apache?) might not default to index.??? unless accessed through your domain name (URL). I had this problem before.

I hope this helps.

You can set your local machine nameservers to the webserver's nameservers.

This is simple to do. PM me if ya need help.

Originally posted by Abu Mami
If not, then you might have access via the host's URL together with your user name:
www.hostname.com/username/index.html
or with the host's IP:
xx.xx.xx.xx/username/index.html



Actually, more often it's:
www.hostname.com/~username/index.html
or
xx.xx.xx.xx/~username/index.html
(Don't forget the '~.') :)

You can find the URL from your control panel, go to Web Options for the domain name, look in the textarea box and look for the line with a long URL on it, most likely something like dNNN.uNNN.hostingcompany.com (As neofree posted), that will be your temp URL till the DNS propagates. Your host should however have sent you that info in your welcome email.