Table of Contents
Preface
There are times that your DNS server will not return the correct IP address for a particular web or other type of server. While this can be frustrating, it’s often by design. Many times, you’re in the process of migrating a website from one host to the other and need to stage the site, make sure everything is working, then “cut over” to the new host. In this article, I’ll go over this process for Windows and Linux. If you’re using Windows and would rather watch a video, you’re in luck!
Windows
Step1: Open Notepad in Administrator Mode
Let’s start by opening the Start Menu and typing “Notepad”. You’ll need to right-click on the Notepad icon then select “Run as administrator”. When prompted, allow the app to make changes to your device (Click “Yes”)
Step 2: Open Hosts file
Now that Notepad is opened in Administrator mode, let’s open our hosts file. Select File –> Open.
You’ll need to type “C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc” into the Address bar and hit enter. Next, ensure you’ve got “All Files” selected as your view. Finally, select “hosts” and click “Open” :