Offline Mode (Joomla 2.5)

At some point you may want to take your site offline as you make updates, upgrades, edits, or if you'd simply like the site to not be live as you develop it. This article explains how to take your site offline so that it is removed from the public view, but still available for you to work on. To start, log into the back end of your site, go to the Global Configuration area.

On the "Site" tab, under "Site Settings", there is a "Site Offline" option. Simply click on "Yes", save your work, and go to the front end of your site.

Your URL will now display a login form similar to the following. Site administrators can log into the back end of the site here. It is possible to customize the message and the login form.