====== Site Maintenance Message ======
You want to quickly take a site down for maintenance.  All visitors see the temporary message while files are being uploaded, but you can see that the site works before making it live again.

  - create a maintenance.html file at the root of your site (best not to use images unless you are sure they won't be changed)
  - modify your htaccess file as follows:<code>
    Options +FollowSymlinks
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^888\.888\.888\.888

    RewriteRule $ /maintenance.html [R=302,L] 
</code>
  - change the remote host address to your external ip address

===== External Links =====
  * http://www.techiecorner.com/97/redirect-to-maintenance-page-during-upgrade-using-htaccess/