How to bypass the annoying DNS propagation

Informal
1

So, when you have a new website and you use a stubborn registar (like Freenom), you can bypass all the DNS waiting. It’s very easy to do, let’s show you.

Step 1

On the status page (not the cPanel), you will see Website IP. Copy the IP address.
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Step 2

Now you have to find the hosts file. If you’re on Windows, just press Win+R, and type the following:

cmd /c notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

and press Ctrl+Shift+ ← Enter. You might also have to click Yes.

If you’re on Linux, just edit /etc/hosts as root.
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Step 3

Now, in the hosts file, create a new line with the text:

<Website IP address> <The domain/subdomain of the site>

<Website IP address> is the IP that you saw, and <The domain/subdomain of the site> is the domain that your registar gave you, or the free InfinityFree subdomain that you got.

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Step 4

Now, flush your DNS. On Windows, press Win+R again, but type cmd, and just press OK.

Then, type ipconfig /flushdns and ← Enter.

On Linux, usually you just have to reboot.

1 Like
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That is only going to force an update on your computer. Everyone else will still have the same issues. Also, since the DNS change has to go though DNS servers first, that not guaranteed to work 100% of the time.

Not a bad guide though, good job!

2 Likes
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Usually on my phone it only took a few hours.

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Great article! Very helpful as additional information to this article:

I might just move this to Community Guides.

One thing to note though:

On Linux, it just works™. Linux systems in general rarely need rebooting to do anything.

And to edit the hosts file, all you need to do is save the file and it works.

Are you sure you need to flush DNS cache on Windows though? On Linux, the hosts file bypasses DNS lookups entirely, so even if you have a local DNS cache, the hosts file overrides even cached items.

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