Yes Virginia, you can access a web site on a shared server with it’s IP address

Tired of waiting for DNS to update before you can begin working on that web site at a shared server? It took me a while to track this down, but simply modifying your ‘hosts’ file(s) on your computer will enable your browser to point to the new server & resolve the address. (I had to modify both the hosts & hosts.msn files) Think of it as a local DNS for your PC, just remember to change it back once everything propagates online.

What’s discouraging is Godaddy says nothing about this in their help files, they only try to up sell you to a dedicated IP citing “View your Web site via its IP address” as a reason to get one. Now, if only there was a way to get those MX records to update sooner :-/