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Temporary URLs: what are they, and what are they used for?

When you create a hosting package you're given a temporary URL. There are a few reasons why you may want to use the temporary URL. Viewing a hosting package when you have used a domain reference At MegabitCloud | Web Hosting you can create a hosting package using a domain reference. This means that the hosting package won’t be connected to a live domain name via DNS, so to view the files you’ve uploaded to the site you can use the temporary URL. It will display the site as if it were live, except it will be on our temporary URL servers, and the URL is something like temporarydomain.com. Viewing a site that you’ve migrated, before you switch the DNS to MegabitCloud When migrating a site to MegabitCloud, we recommend the following process: 1. Migrate the site files, emails, and databases to MegabitCloud 2. Check the site works at MegabitCloud via the temporary URL 3. Point the nameservers to MegabitCloud Step 2 is where the temporary URL comes in. After you’ve copied all the site data to MegabitCloud | Web Hosting, you may want to check that it works. Selecting the temporary URL will show you what the site will look like before you’ve pointed the nameservers to MegabitCloud. Showing your client their site before making it live on the actual domain name You may want to show your client a site that you’ve developed for them, without it being accessible on the live domain name. You can give your clients the URL: temporarydomain.com Alternatively, you create a redirect from the domain name to the temporary URL. Frequently Asked Questions Is the temporary URL the same as a Staging Environment? No, the temporary URL is not the same as a staging environment as it will always reflect what will be on the live site, so it’s not possible to perform work and then “push” changes to the live domain name. Does the temporary URL support SSL? The temporary URL does not support SSL, so if you have a hard-coded redirect that forces http:// -> https:// this will need to be removed. Similarly, when you are switching between the live domain and temporary URL, you need to make sure you add http and not https. Are there any alternatives to using the temporary URL? Yes, you can modify your hosts files. Your machine's local hosts file allows you to override DNS for a particular domain or subdomain name. This is a great way to test the site ahead of changing real DNS: you're able to test the website at MegabitCloud | Web Hosting while the rest of the internet continues to use DNS to point to the existing website. Does my website perform the same on the temporary URL servers? No, temporary URL servers are reduced capacity as they're just for trialing a website on the platform before going live so they're not intended to benchmark performance.

Last updated on May 18, 2026

CDN Statistics

With the MegabitCloud Web Hosting CDN, you can get an understanding about the traffic and requests accessing your sites. Detailed data sets are collated and presented in charts for each of your sites at MegabitCloud Web Hosting, giving you insights about your site’s performance. Accessing site Statistics You can access the statistics for each site you host from the package overview page with your MegabitCloud Web Hosting Control Panel account. - Select the package you wish to view the statistics for by selecting Manage. Ignore this if you have one account and head directly to Statistics - Select Statistics You’ll be presented with the CDN Statistics overview with the option to switch to the Traffic Distribution view. Total Bandwidth -  This refers to the amount of data (in bytes) sent through the MegabitCloud  Web Hosting CDN to the client. This is split between data that’s been served from the origin server (uncached bandwidth) and served from the CDN nodes (cached bandwidth). Total Hits - This refers to the number of files and sessions that have been transferred using the CDN network, it’s important to note that this isn't the same as ‘unique visitors’. You can filter the statistics by a time period using the toggles at the top-right of each section. Traffic Distribution The statistics also show a geographic overview of incoming requests to your side. This can also be toggled between Last Hour, Last Day and Last Week. You can hover over a country to see figures for that location. Total Bandwidth - Total Bandwidth - Total amount of bandwidth (sum of bytes) served by MegabitCloud Web Hosting's CDN network - Cached Bandwidth - Amount of bandwidth for requests considered as “cached”, i.e., the response is served from MegabitCloud Web Hosting's CDN Cache - Uncached Bandwidth - Amount of bandwidth for requests considered as “uncached”, i.e., the response is served directly from backend server Total Hits - Total Hits - Total number of requests captured by MegabitCloud Web Hosting's CDN network. - Cached Hits - Number of requests considered as “cached”, i.e., the response is served from MegabitCloud Web Hosting's CDN Cache. - Uncached Hits**-** Number or requests considered as “uncached”, i.e., the response is served directly from the backend server. SSL Hits vs Non-SSL Hits This graph shows the number of requests that are encrypted via the HTTPS protocol as opposed to the unencrypted HTTP protocol. If requests to a site such as http://example.com are made, this would constitute an insecure request. You’ll want to ensure that as much as possible requests to your sites are made over HTTPS. Most often, this can be achieved using a 301 redirect, WordPress plugin, or ensuring the WordPress site and home URL utilise HTTPS. You will also need an SSL certificate to cover the site. HTTP Successful Requests vs Error Requests Successful Request - These requests are defined as being all HTTP requests in the range of 200-399, such as '200 OK' requests or 301 Redirects. Error Requests  - These are defined as being HTTP requests ≥ 400, such as 404 Not Found requests or 503 Internal Server Errors. It’s important that the amount of successful requests is maximised. If you’re seeing a higher rate of error requests, you should consider checking the access and error logs for any data about requests.

Last updated on May 18, 2026