Using a domain as test space

[mikem1986]

I was just wondering whether it was worth buying a domain so i can use it to test websites on etc? Does anyone else do this and if so is there any pro's / con's i should be aware of?

Cheers

[wyweb]

I've been doing that for years.

Pros: Live environment with no actual visitors to notice when you screw something up.

Cons: Can't really think of any off hand. Renewal fee every year?

[phranque]

you can always use a subdomain for testing, although it may be easier to host your test environment on a different server if the domain is different.
or you can set up all your test environments as subdomains of your "testing" domain.

[LifeinAsia]

Save money with another trick- just setup a dummy domain in your hosts file and point it to your server's IP address. On your server, setup a virtual host just like you would do for a real domain.

Example, if you have example.com on IP a.b.c.d add the following line to your hosts file:
a.b.c.d example.org

Setup example.org on your server just like you would for a "real" domain.

You should be good to go.

The downside is that you can only do testing from your own computer (unless you make similar changes to the hosts file on other computers). If you're going to have multiple people testing, it probably makes sense to just buy another domain.

[mikem1986]

yeah, i just bought the new domain! thanks guys

[dreamcatcher]

Why not set up a server offline? Much more convenient option which speeds up development. Try Wamp or Xampp.

dc