Your computer’s hosts file is a simple text file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. In practical terms, that means that it maps a domain, like pagely.com, to a server’s IP address, like 192.168.0.1.
Normally, this process is handled by the Domain Name System (DNS) when you’re using the Internet. However, the hosts file provides an alternative method to map hostnames to IP addresses without using DNS.
As a WordPress user, the hosts file can be especially helpful when you migrate a WordPress site to a new host or otherwise change your domain’s nameservers. For example, if you move from Host A to Host B, you’ll first migrate all of your site’s files. Then, you’ll need to update your domain’s nameservers to point to Host B (instead of Host A).
However, DNS takes some time to update, which means that your domain name might still take you to Host A when you really want to end up at Host B to see if your newly migrated site is working properly.
The hosts file lets you fix that by manually mapping your site’s domain name to the IP address of your site’s new server. That means you’ll be able to fully test out your new site without needing to wait for your DNS changes to propagate.
In this article, you’ll learn:
Then, we’ll also share a beginner-friendly tool that lets you preview your website on a new server before DNS propagates without the need to edit your hosts file, though it’s not quite as flexible as editing your hosts file.
The default hosts file is quite simple. It’s comprised of two things:
You can also optionally add comments by using the # sign, which is helpful if you want to remind yourself about the purpose of each entry.
Here’s what the default hosts file looks like:
You can also add multiple hostnames to an IP address if needed. If you want to add multiple hostnames, you just add them both to the same line. For example, this lets you include both yoursite.com and www.yoursite.com.
Here’s an example of what the hosts file looks like with three entries:
If you want to add new entries to the hosts file, you’ll need the IP address of the server that you want to map a hostname to. If you’re hosting at Pagely, you can find your server’s IP address in the Advanced Options area of your app:
To edit the hosts file on Windows, you will need Administrator access. If you’re working on your own computer, that shouldn’t be an issue. But if you’re on a company-provided computer, you might not have that access.
This same general approach should work no matter if you’re using Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows Vista, or even older versions. For reference, though, the screenshots in our tutorial are from Windows 10.
To get started, you’ll need to open your preferred text editor with administrator privileges.
To do that, right-click on your text editor’s icon and choose Run as administrator.
We’ll use Notepad++ for this example, but you can use any text editor:
Once you open the program, you should see [Administrator] at the top, which confirms that the program does have administrator privileges:
Go to File → Open in your text editor. Then, browse to the following folder location (you can paste it into the navigation bar to go directly there):
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\
You should see a list of files that includes hosts. Click on the hosts file and choose Open:
Now, you can add as many new entries as needed.
Use this format:
1.2.3.4 yoursite.com
Enter each IP address on its own line. For each IP address, you can add multiple hostnames on the same line.
Here’s an example of what it might look like:
To edit the hosts file on Mac, you’ll need to be logged in as a user with administrator privileges. You’ll also need the password for your administrator account.
To get started, open the Terminal application. You can find it by clicking on the Finder icon and then going to Applications → Utilities:
In terminal, enter the following command and then press enter:
sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
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If prompted, you might also need to enter your administrator password after running the command.
Now, you can add as many entries as needed using the text editor. To navigate the text editor, use the arrow keys to move between lines and hit enter to create a new line.
Just as with other operating systems, use the following format:
To save your changes, type Control + X.
To edit the hosts file on Linux, you can generally follow the same steps as for MacOS.
That is, you first open Terminal. Then, use this command sudo nano /etc/hosts.
sudo nano /etc/hosts
Make your changes. Then, save your changes by typing Control + X.
Finally, if you just want a simple way to preview your site before DNS propagates, you can use the free SkipDNS.link tool.
The only downside with this approach is that it might not work properly if you use a CDN. If that’s the case, you can try disabling your CDN or just edit your hosts file directly via the methods above.
The tool itself works a lot like the hosts file. That is, you enter your domain name and server IP address. Then, click the button to see how your site looks at that server:
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