Browse a website with hosts file

During server migration or transfer, you might want to test your websites in new server to ensure everything working properly before update your domain's name servers. To do that, please follow these steps:

1. Edit hosts file "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" in your PC.

2. Add following 2 lines to last line of the hosts file:

NEW_WEBSITE_IP    yourdomain.com
NEW_WEBSITE_IP    www.yourdomain.com

*Replace NEW_WEBSITE_IP to website IP in new server, and yourdomain.com to your actual domain name.

3. Save it and then browse http://www.yourdomain.com or http://yourdomain.com in web browser, you should now see contents hosted in new server.

If your web browser still show you contents in old server, please clear your web browser cache or restart your PC. Remember to remove the added lines after complete your test.

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