How can I preview my website in cPanel before configuring DNS

cPanel let's you preview websites using the following URL, replacing ip with the IP address of your Linode/server and username with the username of your cPanel account.

http://ip/~username/

Tip: If you aren't sure what the username is, log in to WHM (http://ip:2087), navigate to Account Information > List Accounts, and look in the "Username" column of that list.

If you are seeing a cPanel 404 error on that URL, it may be because your Apache settings are blocking that functionality. I just spun up my own Linode based on the cPanel Marketplace App and I needed to do the following to get the preview functionality working:

1. Login in to WHM (http://ip:2087)
2. Navigate to Software > EasyApache 4
3. Click customize next to the profile you are using.
4. Click on the Apache Modules link, search for mod_ruid2, and disable it. Also disable mod_itk and mod_passenger if they are enabled (they were already disabled on my fresh cPanel install).
5. Keep clicking Next or select Review to jump to the end of the options.
6. Review the changes just to double check that you are disabling the proper modules.
7. Click Provision.
8. After the provisioning process completes, navigate to Security Center > Apache mod_userdir Tweak.
9. Check "Enable mod_userdir Protection" and click Save.

After that's done, try accessing the URL listed above. This is what worked for me!