The topic was a little hard to come up with because I'm not quite sure how address this particular issue.
I have used Godaddy for DNN hosting for a dozen or so sites over the last 2 years without much issue. But then again, I'm not even sure that where the DNN site is hosted has anything to do with my current dilemma.
My most recent client already has a website up and running with their current vendor (a proprietary CMS) providing hosting and DNS services. They are unhappy with their website and vendor so they are contracting me to build a new site. I am going to arrange for hosting services (and ultimately transfer their domain name registry) to Godaddy. First, I will get the hosting space up and running along with a dedicated IP address. I will transfer over the registry later.
No problem so far.
My questions are:
1. Can I run / develop a DNN installation from server space that is only referenced by an IP address (and not a domain name). Because until I get the new site completed, they want their current site to remain active. So, I can't reset the DNS to Godaddy Name Servers while developing the new site.
2. Assuming that I can run a DNN site via an IP address, when it is ready to go live, I will assign the primary domain name to point to the hosting space (instead of just the IP address). Will the DNN install continue to work or would this "break" the DNN installation? One thing worth mentioning is that databases file(s) that Godaddy sets up when installing DNN do not include the domain name in the path to a particular domain.
3. One thing I considered was to use the ".net" version of their domain name (they currently just redirect traffic from the .net domain to the .org site) to develop the site and then either redirect traffic from the .org to the .net with URL masking. Or just reassign the domain name assigned to the hosting space from .net to .org -- but that returns me to question #2.
I hope I explained what I am attempting to accomplish. Thanks for any suggestions anyone might have.
Jim