![\"snappys_protips03\"](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/snappys_protips03.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is a “temporary” URL, and why do we keep enclosing it in quotation marks?\u00a0 Let’s answer the last part first: it’s not actually temporary, in fact it’s very much permanent.\u00a0 We can elaborate on that by addressing what exactly is this thing to which we refer as a temporary URL.\u00a0 First things first, here is the associated KnowledgeBase<\/a> article: https:\/\/support.hostgator.com\/articles\/hosting-guide\/lets-get-started\/temporary-url<\/a><\/p>\n A temporary URL is simply a means to access your website’s files without invoking the use of an actual domain name.\u00a0 There are multiple circumstances where this might be beneficial, one of which would be while your domain name is in propagation.\u00a0 As you can see in the KB article, the actual syntax of a temporary URL varies dependent upon your hosting platform.\u00a0 For our purposes, we’ll stick with cPanel for our lesson here today, but the same logic applies across all platforms.<\/p>\n Let’s use the following information:<\/p>\n Primary Domain – ninjas-are-awesome.com Assuming that my domain name is not yet propagated, I can still access my website via both of the following “temporary” URLs:<\/p>\n http:\/\/gator1337.hostgator.com\/~ninjas Note that in both instances, we simply declared a server (either by hostname or IP address) and then used a tilde (~) followed by our cpanel username, which then will deliver us to the contents of the primary domain on our account (logically this would simply be the public_html folder).<\/p>\n What if we want to access an addon domain, or a subdomain?\u00a0 The same logic applies to both; simply continue down the file structure within your account in order to arrive at the desired location.\u00a0 In other words, if we have an addon domain called pirates-are-awesome.com and it is located in \/public_html\/pirates-are-awesome.com, then we would access that website via either of these URLs:<\/p>\n http:\/\/gator1337.hostgator.com\/~ninjas\/pirates-are-awesome.com We now see that “~username” will deliver us to our primary domain (or public_html) and we can then expand from there to literally access any file or website within our hosting account simply by exercising logic and following the file structure that we created anytime we upload a file or created an addon- or subdomain.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n
\nUsername – ninjas
\nServer – gator1337
\nIP address – 172.192.226.44<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/172.192.226.44\/~ninjas<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/172.192.226.44\/~ninjas\/pirates-are-awesome.com<\/p>\n