Editing your own Hosts File prior to nameserver propagation
DNS propogation can take up to 24-48 hours. Until it is complete, you may not be able to put your domain name into your browser or SCP/FTP client and have it find the new server properly. To bypass DNS, you can edit the local “hosts” file on your computer. The hosts file contains manual IP address to domain name mappings, replicating the function of a DNS server.
On a Mac or Linux based computer
Open a shell window and run the following command
sudo pico /etc/hosts
You can edit with your favorite text editor.
When you first open the hosts file, you should see an entry that looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
Add a new line in the same format for your domain:
ip.ad.re.ss www.example.com example.com
Where “ip.ad.re.ss” is the new IP address on our server for your domain, and “example.com” is your actual domain name. (You can find the IP address in Siteadmin under Account Information)
A new entry for site5.com would look like the following:
74.53.50.50 www.site5.com site5.com
If you need to flush your DNS cache, see the Flushing your DNS Cache article
On Windows computers
In Vista or Windows 7 you will need to open notepad with administrator privileges in order to edit the file. Find the Notepad icon, right click on it and select “Run as Administrator” then open the file.
The hosts file is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
When you first open the hosts file, you should see an entry that looks like this (it may differ slightly based on your Windows version):
# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 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
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
Add a new line WITHOUT the “#” in front in the same format for your domain:
ip.ad.re.ss www.example.com example.com
Where “ip.ad.re.ss” is the new IP address on our server for your domain, and “example.com” is your actual domain name. (You can find the IP address in Siteadmin under Account Information)
A new entry for site5.com would look like the following:
74.53.50.50 www.site5.com
74.53.50.50 site5.com
This file is a “plain text” file, so use a text editor and not a word processor like Word to edit it.
Remember to remove this entry after a few days, once DNS propogation is complete or you could experience unexpected browsing results in the future should your IP change.
