You have a live site elsewhere that you are moving to M3 (thanks!), but want to see how the site looks before updating dns? No problem!
Edit your computer’s host file!
windows path:
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows Command:
for windows Vista and Windows 7 Click Start – search for “Notepad“, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“. This should launch notepad with elevated privileges. Now, open the host file from the File menu, edit and save.
Mac OS X and most Linux Operating system’s path:
/etc/hosts
MAC/LINUX COMMAND:
Launch terminal: click on applications > utilities > terminal
sudo nano /etc/hosts
Open the hosts file with notepad, nano, vi, or any other plain text editor (not word or wordpad).
enter this line on the bottom: 216.177.153.2 www.your_site.com
NOTE: the above IP address and web site are an example only. Enter your site’s new IP address and your domain name in place of the stated example. If you don’t know the IP of your server, please email us.
Make sure there is a tab or a space between the ip and the domain name. Save the file. Restart your browser, and you will now see the site on your server. Quick and simple. I make a shortcut of my hosts file on my desktop as I do this often.
Restart your browser, you can now view your site on the new server for testing before updating the DNS servers at your domain registrars.
