Accessing old version of site after moving web host?

[SCEtoAUX]

Hi all.

I have a client with a Joomla-based website sat at their current hosts (TSO). We've got the bare bones of a new site built in Wordpress now, and that will live at new hosts (Krystal).

I know we just change the DNS to serve the site from Krystal but the clients want to be able to view the old site as well for a number of months so that they can rebuild some of the archive pages at leisure and generally have it as a reference.

The two options I can think of don't seem good:

1 - Edit hosts file - This would mean having to keep changing it when they need to look at the other site.
2 - Stick the old site on temporary domain bought for the purpose (www.old_sitename.co.uk) and then do a quick edit of Joomla config to change URLs (seems a bit messy)

So what can the PH minds suggest as the best solution for showing the Wordpress site to the world but easily being able to look at the other one.

Thanks all.

[CzechItOut]

I don't know about TSO, but my reseller account allows me to create temporary web addresses. This means before you buy a URL you can access the site for development purposes. I see no reason why this wouldn't also work the other way around after you've changed the DNS.

The one thing you will need to be aware of is whether the old site uses absolute URLs meaning it would inadvertently redirect to the new site.

[dmsims]

IIRC Tsohost offered the creation of a temp site domain name

something like: yourdomain.com.gridhosted.co.uk

but you might still need to change URL's in Joomla

[montecristo]

Wayback Machine?

[judas]

Create a subdomain and point it to the old site/server, eg old.yourdomain.com

[SCEtoAUX]

Some good suggestions there, thanks. Will use one of those.

Cheers