Issue
For various reasons it may be necessary to update the Hosts file on your
computer to properly resolve a web site by its domain name. The most common
reason for this is to allow you to view or publish web content immediately after
purchasing a new domain name or transferring an existing domain name to our
service.
New and transferred domain names have a delay period that can be anywhere
from a few hours to a few days. During this period of time the new or
transferred domain information propagates around the internet, and is generally
unavailable.
If you need to preview your site immediately and cannot use the Plesk Site
Preview feature then you can edit a file on your computer as a temporary work
around.
Solution
Windows & Mac contain a file called 'hosts' that will force resolution of
your domain name. Edit this file using the following procedure.
Click here for instructions for Windows or Mac
instructions.
Windows
1.
Locate the hosts file on your computer
Use Windows explorer to navigate to the following directory:
Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts
Windows NT/2000 c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP Home/Pro c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
2.
Open the hosts file for editing
Open your hosts file in Notepad. It should look something like this when you
open it:
We will start typing on a new line at the bottom of the file. To do so, click
your mouse so that the cursor is at the very end of the last line and hit
<Enter> to start a new line.
Enter the following two lines of text like this example:
123.123.123.123 yourdomainname.com
123.123.123.123 www.yourdomainname.com
You must replace the 123.123.123.123 number with the IP Address of the web
server detailed in your Net24 setup email. Replace 'yourdomainname.com' and
'www.yourdomain.com' with the domain name of your web
site.
Your Hosts file should looks something like this when you are done.
Close the Hosts file and save it when asked. If your browser is currently
open, close it so that the changes take effect. It is not necessary to restart
your computer.
Mac OS X
10.2 or later
To find the hosts file in OS X's graphical interface:
- Open Finder.
- In the Go menu, select "Go to Folder"
- Type /etc for the folder name.
- In the list of files that appears, you should find hosts. Double click it to
open it in a text editor.
- As in the earlier examples, the format of the file is: 123.123.123.123
www.yourdomainname.com.
You should now be able to view and publish to your web site using your domain
name.
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