How do you test non-live sites before switching DNS?

Question

I have a few websites that I need to move to a new server - how would I test that they work before switching DNS? What URL would I navigate to?

Answer 1

The easiest way is to modify your hosts file to hardcode the domain name to the new IP address temporarily. See this guide for OS-specific instructions. Don't forget to remove the entry again after you're done testing.

Alternatively, you could setup a temporary test subdomain for each site on the new server (test.example.com), set it up as an alias, and use this to test with. If you're using control panel software (like cpanel), sometimes these can automate this process, giving you a temporary URL to test with instead.