How to keep my public users from landing on my Development Server?

Question

Hi All, We have a team working on a development server that rolls to a live server once a month. (It's on a separte subdomin - but otherwise looks like the live site (which is the point)).

How you other distributed teams keep public users off an open development server/site?

(We can't use a localhost - we're in 3 differnt countries)

Thanks CM

Answer 1

You could add a required password to your dev site using ordinary HTTP authentication (.htpasswd on Apache, for example). Your developers, once they've typed in the password for the site, won't be bothered unless they close their browser. Public users obviously wouldn't know the password (and you can direct them where to go in the 401 or 403 "access denied" message).

This sort of authentication won't interfere with whatever login system you have for your own site (if you have one).

Answer 2

You could...

• Use Localhost and use an ssh tunnel
• Use .htaccess and limit it by IP's (not recommended as IP's change)
• Use .htpasswd to require an http authentication with a username and password.