Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Web Hosting Tutorials : a way to get around DNS propagation

[amex]

There is a way to tell your computer that when you go to your domain name it should send you to the server at which your web hosting account is located.

Note: This will allow your computer only to access the site, it will not allow the rest of the world to access your site using the domain name until the DNS propagates.
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There is something called the hosts file.


What is the hosts file?


The Hosts file is like an address book. When you type an address like www.yahoo.com into your browser, the Hosts file is consulted to see if you have the IP address, or "telephone number," for the server that the site is hosted on. If you do, then your computer will "call it" and the site will open. If not, your computer will ask your ISP's (internet service provider) computer for the phone number before it will go to that site.

What we can do is edit that hosts file, so when you put in the domain name it will send you to the webpage that you have on your new server although DNS is still propagating.

Here's how to do it:


Step 1: Go to My Computer and click on your main hard drive(usually C:/)

Step 2: Click on WINDOWS and then on system32

Step 3: Click on drivers and then etc

Step 4: Open up the Hosts file with notepad or another text editor

You should see something like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost

Step 5: Go to the next line Under 127.0.0.1 and localhost and add the ip address of the server that the site is hosted on, a space and then the domain name:

For example, a domain name cars.com with the ip address 11.22.33.44:

11.22.33.44 cars.com

Step 6: Go to the next line under this new entry and add the same thing as before just this time for the domain name put www. berfore it:

Example again with the cars.com

11.22.33.44 www.cars.com


Step 7: Save the hosts file


To confirm, this is what the final hosts file should look like:
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
11.22.33.44 cars.com
11.22.33.44 www.cars.com

(With your applicable IP address and domain names)

[wegaonline]

Good info. Anyway, some web host do offer a temporary URL where you can access your newly built web pages immediately, to get a feel on how it looks on the Internet while waiting for the newly registered domain name to propagate.

[amex]

I provide that as well, however, it is helpsful to be able to get full use of the site using the steps provided.

[Reflective]

You can also use the HOSTS file to block ads. I.E. 0.0.0.0 advertisingsitethatyoudontwant.com If you google for HOST file lists, you can find premade HOSTS files with the majority of AD sites blocked already. I used this a long time ago (premade list) but it ended up blocking certain things I needed.