Hosts File
When looking up a domain name, the DNS request returns an IP address that the site is located at.
You can override which IP address a domain is mapped to by editing your hosts
file temporarily.
To do this on OS X, open a Terminal session and run this command:
sudo nano /etc/hosts
Navigate to the bottom of the file with your keyboard, and add a new entry, in this syntax:
1.2.3.4 domain.com
Save your hosts file by pressing Control-O
on your keyboard and then Enter
.
You can exit the editor by pressing Control-X
.
In some cases, your web browser caches DNS lookups for domains, so you will need to completely quit out of your browser and restart it for the changes to appear.