How to put magento in maintenance

Question

Is it possible to put a magento site under an maintenance flag so that visitors will get a message that the site is under construction? I can\'t find this setting in the admin a

Answer 1

Just add a blank file called maintenance.flag to your root.. job done

A neater solution is to use this extension.

it allow you to set the store up so that once logged into the back end you have access to the front + a few other neat features