DNS/Alias question

[222fbj]

I have a domain/site 'coastalwildscapes.org' running on another host. I just bought a Basic account which will be used to develop and host a new version of the site. When the new version is ready (about 30 days) I'll follow your 'godaddy/domain' tutorial to point to the new site. When I signed up with Steadfast I used 'coastalwildscapes.org' for the domain but did not transfer. I was given a direct access url (eg x.u50.nozonenet.com) and ftp url (web4)

So far I have installed Joomla, which now shows the admin link as coastalwildscapes.org/joomla.

What should I do re dns/alias/Joomla/etc so I can develop/test the new site? And when ready, switch from the current to my new steadfast host?

Thanks

[brad]

Glad you posted this one to the forum, because it's a great standard question. The best approach is to use a hosts file:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file

You can enter your host name and its IP i.e.:

216.86.146.13 coastalwildscapes.org www.coastalwildscapes.org

This is useful for Wordpress, Joomla, and other sites that redirect traffic as you arrive, or websites that use absolute links to their content; it forces all lookups for your computer to go to the proper IP.

[222fbj]

Did you mean put a hosts.txt on the host or my local pc? I can login to Joomla admin now. But when I get to the web4 default menu (I chose webshell) and click 'home' it brings up the current/old site (not the steadfast site). I'm still not sure if I need to change anything. I noticed the /joomla htaccess.txt file includes a note re "Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL is not directly related to physical file paths. Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root)" # RewriteBase / Do I need to change this?

[Island]

Use a hosts file on your local pc. There are a couple different ways to do this, but for example on windows xp/vista you can edit the c:\windows\System 32\drivers\etc\hosts file and add a line like 216.86.146.13 coastalwildscapes.org www.coastalwildscapes.org - you may have to restart your browser, but then when you go to the domain the hosts file will override the actual dns record that the rest of the world is seeing. So you can use this to point your pc to the new IP before actually updating the dns for the rest of the world (or also while things are propagating.) (the local hosts file wouldn't work if your browser is set to browse through a proxy)

[brad]

Feel free to send us a ticket about this if you'd like, too...

Did everything get sorted out for you? I tested your site using a hosts file on my own machine; as best I can tell everything's moved over nicely. Let us know if you need help.