NOTE: The steps in this guide are advanced and require Administrator privileges on your device. Please only proceed if you're comfortable with making advanced changes. Incorrect configurations in the System32 directory can render your device unusable.
1) Search for Notepad in your Start Menu, right-click and then select 'Run as administrator'
2) Open your hosts file by clicking File>Open , then in the top bar, paste C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc
Select the drop-down that says 'Text Documents' and change it to 'All Files'
Select the file named 'hosts' and then click 'Open'
3) Add the content to your hosts file. Examples below.
If you have created a website named 'mynewwebsite.co.uk' on a new hosting account, you will need to get the IP Address of the server it sits on. If you're hosting this with us, it will be in your welcome email, or can be found in your client area when you click on the service.
For this example, 'mynewwebsite.co.uk' is configured on server with IP Address 1.2.3.4.
Add the following line beneath the existing text in your hosts file:
1.2.3.4 mynewwebsite.co.uk
Now, save the file.
If you visit the website in your browser, you should now be seeing the version hosted on our servers (or whichever server you're pointing to).
Remember to revert this change when you switch DNS. Also note that you may get SSL/TLS errors in your browser when you have this configured, it's totally normal and is due to SSL name mismatch since the site is being served from a server other than what your publicly configured SSL certificate claims.
