HI guys:

 I'm about to take my first DNN 7 site and go live. We've been developing it using the hostname that our hosting provider has given us. Temphost.myhostingserver.com 

FOr testing, I went in to the Site Aliases and added an alias. i put it as www.mycompany.com

 I edited my C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file and made an entry WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM that points to the IP of the temphost.myhostingserver.com

 I browse to the site using WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM and get: Web Page is Unavailable

HOwever, if I do the same thing on my development machine, adding a new portal alias and updating the HOSTS file to point to it, I can successfully see the site as WWW.MYCOMPANY.COM.

So I can't figure how why this isn't working to test the readiness of the site on the hosting server that is about to go live this week.

 I edited my HOSTS file to try to simulate the DNS change, repointing our existing public hostname to the new hosting IP to ensure that I don't have any missing / broken links, etc., prior to going live.

I have the site alias listed in the Site Settings. 

I'm wondering if this has to do with Host Header configuration settings on the hosting provider not having an entry for www.mycompany.com, but that's just a guess.

Any ideas? I don't want to go live without making sure that the site is ready to go without testing it first and using the entry in the HOSTS file to temporary change the IP address to point to the new webserver for that host name.

Any help would be appreciated because at this point, if I did make the DNS change to go live, everyone would get the "web page is unavailable". Not good at this point, but I"m sure it's probably something easy to deal with.

Danke, John. I can always count on you for some help.

 I contacted my hosting provider. They updated the host headers on their webhost that I"m on and it's now functional. I don't know why the main host header (www.mycompany.com) was missing, but it's set up now and I can conclude the pre-go live testing to make sure I don't have any issues.

Getting a little nervous about the launch. it's my first DNN site in quite a few years on a new web hosting company. I'm hoping the performance and issues are nothing too bad for now. Can always move later if I have to. I wish these hosting companies would be required to disclose how densely packed their webhosts are. But as long as I get reasonable performance for now, I'll be a happy camper!