Hosting website pre-domain

A

Aarem

New Member
Hi everyone. I want to be able to do site redesigns for people and host their sites on my VPS. However, I was wondering if there's a way to create a new website account, upload the site files and access the site online before the domain has been redirected to the new location?

For example, is there a temporary domain name that can be used (say using the VPS IP address) that will stand in for the proper domain name?

When I used to buy separate hosting for each website, the company would provide a temporary url that could be used until the domain name was directed at the site.

Thanks for any advice. I hope the question is clear enough. :)
 
I'm curious how others do this but I've found subdomains work well during the design and testing process. I setup them as client.mydomain.com. Everything has worked well when we get to setting up the account and moving the domain.

Cheers!
 
Hello Aarem,

You can create the account and then access it using http://servername.com/~accountname if you have enabled it.

To enable this in WHM go to Security Center | Apache mod_userdir tweak and either uncheck the box at the top for 'Enable mod_userdir Protection' or leave it checked and check the box for the account you want access to.

Not everything will work when accessing this way of course like PHP sites with a DB backend will expect to be accessed using a FQDN but static sites will work just fine.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks very much for your replies, Chris and Dan. I normally do the same as you, Chris, using a subdomain. But when I've got a CMS involved, I find it a little problematic to transfer everything over, and would much prefer to do everything 'in situ'.

Dan, thanks for that. That's what I was looking for, although the PHP/database issue is disappointing, as I do use a lot of PHP. Hmm, the only other solution I know of is to use a dedicated IP address until the domain is redirected, but that's a bit of an extreme use of an IP address if it is not needed for anything else. I guess it would be possible to use an IP address initially and then remove it afterwards. This could cause a few CMS problems, though...

I would have thought this is a common issue, and that there was a better solution. I'll explore Dan's solution in a bit more depth, anyway.

Thanks again!
 
Aarem said:
Dan, thanks for that. That's what I was looking for, although the PHP/database issue is disappointing, as I do use a lot of PHP.
Click to expand...

There is no reason why you would not be able to use PHP or a database from a subdomain. This very forum is ample proof of that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top