asp.net - Put a website in maintenance mode?

Question

I've developed my first web application which, surprisingly, is getting very popular.

Because the website is now live, I have a hard time doing some changes, in fear some people are still logged in and are using the application.

I wish to avoid having a duplicated instance of the web application for testing.

Is there any way to put the website in 'maintenance mode' with only me having access to it? Like redirecting to a page with some info, telling its in maintenance mode.

Thanks. :-)

Answer 1

I wish to avoid having a duplicated instance of the web application for testing.

That's your problem right there. For anything but the most trivial sites, you should have a staging or development instance. You should be using source control and have a script to update the main instance.