Cobra Forum

Applicable to:

• Plesk for Linux
• Plesk for Windows

Question

• How to access a website or webmail that exists in Plesk, but is not yet resolving to the Plesk server? For example, when a website was created for tests, recently migrated or its DNS zone has not propagated through the internet yet.

• How to preview a website migrated to a Plesk server before switching its DNS records?

Answer

                          Accessing a website using Plesk Preview feature

1.Log into Plesk

2.Go to Websites & Domains > example.com.

3.Click Preview under the domain.

Note: Preview feature requires nginx reverse proxy. Otherwise, the Preview button will be unavailable.

(https://pix.cobrasoft.org/images/2026/02/03/Screenshot_2022-03-30_at_12-40-07_example.com_-_Plesk_Obsidian_18.0.42.png)


                         Accessing a website / webmail using a local hosts file

Modifying the 'hosts' file allows overriding DNS for a domain on a particular machine and causes local machine to look directly at the IP address specified.

For example, the domain example.com is hosted on a server with IP address 203.0.113.2, but is not resolved to this IP from the Internet. To make your PC/Mac resolve this website to this particular IP address, add the line below to your local 'hosts' file:

203.0.113.2 example.com www.example.com
Modifying the 'hosts' file...

• on Windows OS

[/b]

1.Start a command prompt as an Administrator.

2.Run the following command to open the 'hosts' file in Windows Notepad:

C:\> notepad C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts

3.Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

4.Click File > Save to save your changes.

• on macOS

[/b]

1.Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

2.Open the hosts file by typing the following line in a terminal window:

# sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

Type your domain user password when prompted.

3.Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

Note: The file contains some comments (lines starting with a hash "#" symbol) and some default hostname mappings (for example, 127.0.0.1 – local host). Add your new mappings after the default mappings.

4.Save the hosts file by pressing 'Control+x' and answering y.

5.Make changes take effect by flushing the DNS cache with the following command:

# dscacheutil -flushcache

 

• on Linux OS

[/b]

1.In Linux terminal, open the 'hosts' file in a text editor:

# vi /etc/hosts

2.Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

3.Save the changes and close the file.


                       Accessing a website using a public server IP address
 

1.Log into Plesk

2.Go to Tools & Settings > IP Addresses > click on a public IP address, to which the required domain is assigned in Plesk > select an offline website as a Default site from the drop-down menu.

3.Now, to access the domain, type in the public IP address chosen above in a web-browser: http://203.0.112.2:80.

Note: example.com should be assigned to this IP address in Plesk at Domains > example.com > Hosting Settings. Otherwise, it will not appear in the list.

(https://pix.cobrasoft.org/images/2026/02/03/Screenshot_2022-03-30_at_12-51-18_IP_address_203.0.113.2_on_the_interface_ens3_-_Plesk_Obsidian_18.0.39.png)