Start Working On A Domain Before DNS Propagates
I have seen a few people posting in forums recently with the same problem. They just bought a new domain. They change the nameservers to point to the correct place and then they believe they have to wait for the DNS on those newly created domains to propagate BEFORE they can begin working on them. That could take up to 48 hours to happen. There’s a better way. You don’t have to wait. You can begin working on that new domain of yours immediately!
Here’s what you’ll need…
- A computer running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista
- A nifty new domain name
- IP address of the web server, mail server, ftp server (In many cases, these 3 servers are one in the same)
OK. The first thing you need to do is find out the IP addresses of the web server, the mail server and the ftp server. As mentioned, in most cases, the same server will be running all 3 services. So, for most people, you really only need one IP address for all three. The easiest way to find the IP address is to ping the server. You can’t ping your new domain name yet, because DNS hasn’t propagated yet. But, if you are running any other websites on the same server, then you can ping one of the other websites to get the IP address for it.
Step By Step instructions to get the IP address…
- Click on START > RUN > Type “CMD” (without quotes) > Hit ENTER
- Type “ping www.domain.com” (without quotes - replace “domain.com” with a domain name of another website of yours on the same server you’re going to set this new domain up on)
- You should get 4 responses that look very similar (Reply from ###.###.###.###: bytes=32 time=…….
- The ###.###.###.### is the IP address of the web server (and probably the mail and ftp servers too)
Now you have the IP address. So… You know the domain name and the IP address that the DNS will eventually point to when it finally propagates. If only there was a way for you to tell your computer this information and tell it to ignore the DNS, then you could begin working on your website right now! Well, there is. 
Windows has something called a HOSTS file. It is basically a text file that has no file extension on it. When you type “www.getrss.net” into your browser (or any other program), Windows checks DNS servers to get the IP address for that domain. But, before it even checks DNS, it checks it’s HOSTS file to see if that entry is in there. If it finds that domain in the HOSTS file, then Windows doesn’t even bother to check DNS servers for that information. So, by putting the correct information into the HOSTS file, you can tell Windows where to find your new domain and tell Windows not to bother checking DNS for it.
Here’s how…
- The HOSTS file is found in the following folder path C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
- (For Windows 2000, the path will be C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc)
- Navigate to that folder and open the HOSTS file. (Windows will probably ask you which program to use to open the file because it has no extension and probably hasn’t been associated with an application yet. That’s normal. When asked, just scroll to the bottom area of the list and choose WordPad.
- The HOSTS file will now be open in WordPad. It will look something like this…
Click Here To See The Example HOSTS File
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
The # sign is like a REM statement. Everything after the # sign on each line is ignored. To modify the HOSTS file for our purposes, all we need to do is add a few lines to it and then save the file. You just use the following example but substitute your own IP address (obtained already), about 5 blank spaces (to make it look good to you) and domain name (your new one). We need to add one line for each variant of your domain name just to cover all the bases. So, to set this up, add the following lines to the bottom of your HOSTS file…
- 192.168.1.1 domain.com
- 192.168.1.1 www.domain.com
- 192.168.1.1 mail.domain.com
- 192.168.1.1 ftp.domain.com
Remember to replace the 192.168.1.1 with the IP address of your web server and replace the domain.com with your newly registered domain. Now, just save the HOSTS file again. That’s all you need to do. You’re done. Now you can begin working on that website, while the rest of the world waits for the DNS to propagate. If you’re fast enough, you can even have your website completed by then.
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
http://www.wampserver.com/en/
Check that out, it enables you to run scripts, test code and basically any server side functions locally. It’s a snap to install and even easier to use, along with PHPMyAdmin etc.
Cool software, Nails.
Thanks!