Browsing production website while working development

[Niheel]

How can i browse the production website while also working on a local development enivornment?

Right now i'm using the HOSTS file to propogate the domain's URL to the local version:

127.0.0.1 website.com

and when i want to browse live i have to edit it and do

#127.0.0.1 website.com

and restart the browsers to see live

I would like it to be a simple process that doesn't require me to be in either or and have access to both dev and live at the same time in difference browsers or instances. One solution i came up was maybe throw up a virtual OS, but seems bit much just to view one website.

Any simple solutions?

Development enironment:
Windows Vista 64 bit

[Niheel]

The solution to this is to use Proxy Add Ons on your browser. The ones i suggest are:

QuickProxy for firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1557

The beauty of QuickProxy is that it's a one click on and off solution.

- Once installed go to Tools --> Options --> Advanced --> Network (Tab) and click on Settings button under "Connection".
- Select the Manual proxy configuration option and for HTTP Proxy enter the IP address of your local web server and the Port number.
- Click on OK
- On the bottom right of the firefox browser you will see a icon with the letter P. Click on it to turn it on (it turns green) and click on it once again to turn it off (turns red).


ProxySwitchy For Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions...abniblemipncjj

This one is a bit simpler to use because it adds a button on the top right of the browser, where you can choose Options in the drop down.
- With ProxySwitchy you can setup profiles so you can manage multiple different redirects/forwards. Enter a name for your new proxy profile.
- In a similar process, you set up your proxy by adding the IP address an port number.
- Hit save, Hit close.
- Turning it on and off as easy and click on the world icon on the top right of the chrome browser and choosing the profile you want to use.