Domain registration is a very simple process. After you pay online and finish the registration procedure the domain is yours. The next step is creating DNS records and entering the IP address of the hosting. However, before you and other users will be able to visit this new website, the information from the DNS records should spread around the world. This is not an immediate process, sometimes it may take up to two days. For most users this is not a problem. If this is a new website then it does not matter if it will be available few days later. However, it can be a problem for us if we would like to test it. But there is a simple solution for this unicc.
Uploading files for to our hosting account is not a problem. We can use FTP access which is usually not related to our domain. Even if it is we can use IP address of out hosting server. Unfortunately, this solution can not be used for web access. There are many websites that are hosted on the same web server. If you try to access this IP address with web browser you will probably get one of the websites, but this will not be yours.
The problem is that the connection between the domain and internet address, present in the DNS record, is not available where it is needed. We can solve this problem by adding the missing information locally at our computer. The easiest way to associate domains with IP addresses is to add new records to the hosts file. This file is present in all popular operating systems from Windows to Linux. Each line in hosts file connects some domain with internet address. Initially such file contains only one entry which connects the localhost name with the address 127.0.0.1. All you have to do is to add a line with your new domain followed by the hosting IP address. The function of this line is the same as for the DNS A record--to connect your domain with an address.
After you update the hosts file you can immediately try your new domain in a browser. No computer restart is needed. If everything was set up properly you should see your website. If there is a problem try to ping web server or access it via FTP software to determine the nature of the problem
The hosts file provides an elegant way to access any domain before the DNS records are spread around the world. Of course, this solution is applicable only to one computer for development purposes, other users will still have to wait until the addresses propagate to their computers.
