How to make your site appear offline while it’s being built

To make your site appear offline, you can use a .htaccess code to redirect any visitor who is not at a selected IP address. You may use as many IP addresses or as few as you would like.

This is a straightforward way to redirect visitors, so they are unable to view your site. It is possible to redirect all visitors, excluding yourself, co-workers, and even your clients.

1. First, make a coming soon page named “comingsoon.html,” and then upload it to public_html.
2. Then, add this to your .htaccess file
3. RewriteEngine On
4. RewriteBase /
5. RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^71\.225\.113\.171
6. RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/comingsoon\.html$
7. RewriteRule .* /comingsoon.html [R=302,L]

If you need help with your HostPapa account, please open a support ticket from your dashboard.