Possible to serve different DNS Host Override on per client basis?

[axxxxe]

I am responsible for a website associated with a certain domain, let's say domain.com. Right now the old version of the website is hosted on a server with IP address IP_OLD. I have a new version of the website which is hosted on a different server with IP address IP_NEW.

Right now, the internet DNS entry for domain.com points to IP_OLD.

What I need to do:

1. Test the new website, which is at IP_NEW. For this my thinking is to use a host override to make domain.com resolve to IP_NEW.

2. Once the internet DNS entry is pointing to IP_NEW, still access the old website at IP_OLD. For this my thinking is to use a host override to make domain.com resolve to IP_OLD.

First off, is the above reasonable?

Second, is there a way I can configure the host override such that the overridden address is only served to certain clients on my LAN? The problem is I don't want ALL of my LAN machines to route to the overridden address, just a single machine.

If host override will not work, is there some other way to achieve what I'm looking for?

[JKnott]

@axxxxe

No.

[Gertjan]

By adding the domain and IP in the hosts file ?
Even Windows has such a file.

[axxxxe]

Yes, this looks like it should work! Thank you!!

[JKnott]

@Gertjan

But then that would have nothing to do with pfSense. I used to do that years ago, before I had my own DNS server. The OP's question was about host override, which makes it a pfSense question.

[axxxxe]

Your hosts answer is not pfSense-related, but is still the right answer :-)

[Gertjan]

Sure - I know, your answer is perfectly fine ^^
I even omitted to mention that the host file should be located on the client's device.
But I guess @axxxxe understood that.

[axxxxe]

I understand the hosts file is on the client machine, which is exactly what I want.