How can I rapidly switch hosts?
- by EAMann
I'm in the process of migrating a forum setup from one version of the software on one machine (older shared Windows host) to a new VPS (Windows Server 2008). To install the software, I used my hosts file to temporarily point the domain at the new IP address. To see the old site, I obviously re-edit the hosts file to remove the reference.
But this leaves me constantly adding/removing a # from my hosts file just so I can switch back and forth between the two servers.
Is there a way to do this more rapidly? I've found a handful of toggling batch scripts, but all they do is automate the addition/removal of the # character ... so there's still a noticeable lag where I have to repeatedly hit F5 to force my system to detect the new settings.
Ideally, I could view both servers at the same time on the same machine. Maybe one through a regular browser session and one through some kind of a proxy. Unfortunately, I don't have the first idea how to set that up.
Ideas?