Prior to transferring a domain to Kryptronic Managed Hosting, you’ll need to review the account and software configuration to be sure everything is functioning exactly the way you want. So, how exactly do you preview a domain before the DNS has transferred?
Previewing a domain prior to DNS transfer is accomplished by directing your local computer to look at Kryptronic Managed Hosting to serve your domain. Every operating system has the ability to do this, and we go over the popular ones here. In our examples, the domain ‘thedomain.com’ is being moved to an account on a Kryptronic Managed Hosting server that has been assigned IP address ‘1.2.3.4’.
Previewing a Domain Using Windows
If you’re using the Windows operating system, use a text editor like Notepad to edit your hosts file, which is stored at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. You will need Administrator level privileges to edit the hosts file, which contains a mapping of hostnames to IP addresses. Add two entries at the bottom of the file, then save it:
1.2.3.4 thedomain.com
1.2.3.4 www.thedomain.com
If your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, MSIE, etc.) is open, close it completely out. When you open a new web browser window and access thedomain.com, you will be viewing the domain on Kryptronic Managed Hosting. When you’re finished, be sure to remove the change from your hosts file, and close your web browser.
Previewing a Domain Using Unix, Linux and Mac OSX
If you’re using Unix, Linux or Mac OSX, using the text editor of your choosing, edit your hosts file, which is stored at /etc/hosts. You will need root level privileges to edit the hosts file, which contains a mapping of hostnames to IP addresses. Add two entries at the bottom of the file, then save it:
1.2.3.4 thedomain.com
1.2.3.4 www.thedomain.com
If your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, MSIE, etc.) is open, close it completely out. When you open a new web browser window and access thedomain.com, you will be viewing the domain on Kryptronic Managed Hosting. When you’re finished, be sure to remove the change from your hosts file, and close your web browser.
