{"id":72,"date":"2019-12-16T13:20:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T12:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=72"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:22:10","slug":"test-your-website-before-putting-it-online","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/kb\/test-your-website-before-putting-it-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Test your website before putting it online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before you publish a new or updated website, it\u2019s always a good idea to test it first, so you\u2019re sure everything works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fastest way is using a browser preview. If that doesn\u2019t work, or if you want to force the correct result on your own computer, you can use the hosts file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ht-block-toc  is-style-outline htoc htoc--position-wide toc-list-style-plain\" data-htoc-state=\"expanded\" data-htoc-scrollspy=\"false\" data-htoc-auto-collapse=\"true\" data-htoc-mapping-headers=\"[false,true,true,true,true,true]\"><span class=\"htoc__title\"><span class=\"ht_toc_title\">Table of Contents<\/span><span class=\"htoc__toggle\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\"><g fill=\"#444\"><path d=\"M15 7H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><path d=\"M15 1H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1zM15 13H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/span><div class=\"htoc__itemswrap\"><ul class=\"ht_toc_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-find-your-hosting-ip-address\">Find your hosting IP address<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-test-via-your-browser-recommended\">Test via your browser<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-test-via-the-hosts-file-alternative\">Test via the hosts file<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"htoc-find-your-hosting-ip-address\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Find your hosting IP address<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Follow these steps in our control panel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li id=\"htoc-go-to-my-products-web-hosting\">Go to \u201cMy products\u201d > \u201cWeb hosting\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li id=\"htoc-click-your-domain-name\">Click your domain name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li id=\"htoc-copy-the-ip-address-shown-in-the-overview\">Copy the IP address shown in the overview.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"htoc-test-via-your-browser-recommended\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Test via your browser<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can use sitepreviewer.be to generate a temporary preview link. You\u2019ll need your hosting IP address (see above).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li id=\"htoc-go-to-https-sitepreviewer-be\">Go to <a href=\"https:\/\/sitepreviewer.be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/sitepreviewer.be\/<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li id=\"htoc-enter-your-hosting-ip-address\">Enter your hosting IP address.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li id=\"htoc-enter-your-domain-name-e-g-yourdomain-com\">Enter your domain name (e.g. <code>yourdomain.com<\/code>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li id=\"htoc-generate-the-preview-link-and-open-it-in-your-browser\">Generate the preview link and open it in your browser.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note: the preview link is valid for 72 hours. If it expires, simply generate a new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"htoc-test-via-the-hosts-file-alternative\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Test via the hosts file<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ht-blocks-tabs wp-block-hb-tabs\"><ul class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__nav\" role=\"tablist\"><li class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__head\" data-tab=\"tabs-0\" data-hb-tabs-tab--state=\"active\"><span class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__head_item\" for=\"tab0\">Windows<\/span><\/li><li class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__head\" data-tab=\"tabs-1\" data-hb-tabs-tab--state=\"inactive\"><span class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__head_item\" for=\"tab1\">Mac OS<\/span><\/li><\/ul><div id=\"tabs-0\" class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__content\" role=\"tabpanel\" data-hb-tabs-tab--state=\"active\"><p>Open Notepad as administrator.<br>Open <code>C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts<\/code>.<br>Add a line like: <code>IP_ADDRESS yourdomain.com<\/code><br>Save and browse to your domain.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"tabs-1\" class=\"wp-block-hb-tabs__content\" role=\"tabpanel\" data-hb-tabs-tab--state=\"inactive\"><p>Open Terminal.<br>Run <code>sudo nano \/etc\/hosts<\/code>.<br>Add a line like: <code>IP_ADDRESS yourdomain.com<\/code><br>Save and browse to your domain.<br><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before you publish a new or updated website, it\u2019s always a good idea to test it first, so you\u2019re sure everything works. The fastest way is using a browser preview. If that doesn\u2019t work, or if you want to force the correct result on your own computer, you can use&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[3,14],"ht-kb-tag":[],"class_list":["post-72","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-web-hosting","ht_kb_category-development-on-your-web-hosting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/72\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}