[cobalt-users] Re: cobalt-users digest, Vol 1 #1544 - 16 msgs

[Alfredo Lopez <alfredo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Does anyone have any ideas how I can access a site on the new server
> (using a browser) before the domain is transferred.  I would like to do
> this to make sure that the new copy is complete before releasing it onto
> an unsuspecting world - and my client would be rather pleased as well ;-)
>
> Cheers
>
> John

Other than doing the hack of the config files, you can't because the 
server's structure doesn't work that way. That's why you can't do 
/xxx.xxx.xx.xx/yoursite/  and get anything.

I'm assuming that these virtual sites are named-based -- not tagged 
to their own specific IP number? Right?

I'll tell you what we do. It's been covered here before and it really 
helped us in our work.

When we have a new site come in, we create that site with the name it 
will eventually have after domain propagation. Say for instance, 
www.john.com

We make full dns records for it and then we do this:

Our domain is people-link.com and so we add an a record to the dns 
records for that domain and call it: john.people-link.com. We save 
all that and then we go to the web site directory we created for 
www.john.com and we change the name of the site to 
john.people-link.com. And that's what we have people upload to and 
test.

When everything is ready, we'll switch that site's name back to the 
original "www.john.com" and just erase the a record we created for 
john.people-link.com.

Remember to UNcheck "receive email for this domain" and "web access 
for this domain" when you create the test site -- because the main 
site at "people-link.com" (in our case" is already doing that.

You can make that name change back and forth forever. As long as you 
keep the same IP number for it, nothing will alter the structure or 
contents of its directory. It's just a name and a site by any other 
name looks as sweet. :-)

Hope this makes sense.

Alfredo
--
People-Link/Institute for Mass Communications
http://www.people-link.org
Communications for a Better World...and for the People Who are Building One!
Members, Local 1180, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO