[deanhills]

are you using your own name servers to host the dns records for your domain or the ones from yandex or the ones from your domain registrar or another party?

Thanks Rudra - the info is much appreciated.  Up to an hour or so ago when I noticed Yandex still said my MX record was not set up, I changed my name servers to Yandex Name Servers.  Before that I was using my name servers that are my own name servers that I have registered with my Registrar.  When I was using Zoho there was no need to change the Name Servers.  I don't think there should be need at Yandex, but I was hoping it would strengthen my case as they also have a category of delegating the domain.  

check what you have entered at the domain registrar to know that. then proceed there to configure the dns and mx....

I haven't ever configured any records at the Registrar before other than registering my own domain name servers and setting name servers with the domain.  I always use a Panel to do that with.  Either cpanel with a free shared hosting account, or VestaCP.  BUT, maybe I should, and there is no real harm in it.  This is a very cheap .89C domain I purchased from Namecheap.  So I'll proceed and hopefully that will make a difference.

edit. vestaCP is just a control panel. it is not the central hub or something... this is why people like HR prefer to do it manually when they can. please try to understand how the basic flow of activities runs in a system. then vestaCP will end up as more of a burden than a helpful tool. also you won't have to ask such simple questions. your own clear concept will show you what to look for and where to find it.

Although I more than completely agree with you on this one (it's in my head all the time while I'm working with the panel), I'm lazy.  And I love my VestaCP.  Guess I'm a sucker for punishment!  But there's still hope for me.  

[rudra]

lol. sure there is much hope for you. even a fool like me have hope I believe.
please read my previous post once more. I added some more info.

it is not needed to delegate your dns hosting to yandex if you dont want to.

but using your own name servers that you have created on your own vps is outright silly and insecure and...... gaaaah

it will also make discovering your vps ip easy. but may be you were not hoping to use cloudflare cdn to hide your ip.


edit.
here is another tutorial on medium that may or may not help you.
https://medium.com/@ofarukcaki/setting-up-your-domain-for-yandex-mail-service-7dc2736f2339

[deanhills]

Feedback.  My Dashboard still shows that MX records haven't been set up. Looks as though Yandex is still not perfect enough for fumbler beginners like me. Like I'm almost sure if I had all of my records configured correctly as they are now, BEFORE I applied for the Domain Account, then everything would have been just fine. But somehow technically it just couldn't move on from MX records not set up to it having been set up.

So I haven't given up yet in the long run.  I'm sure it will work eventually.  But for now I've given up.  I'll try again in a year or so.  At least I learned some valuable lessons out of this - in order of their importance to me:

1. Namecheap - my domain registrar for the domain I was working with - doesn't allow one to create MX records and other records at Namecheap if one is not using their DNS.  In other words, if one uses external name servers, like with one's host, then to create MX records at the Registrar is disabled.

Namesilo - the Registrar that is becoming more important to me - does allow one to create MX records regardless of which name servers one uses.  Which is the reason why I'll be using them for all new purchases from now on.  

2. One should study all of the steps for the Yandex Mail setup FIRST before you do anything.  As it may be unforgiving in the background especially when it comes to creating records.  For example it just refused to change its mind about me having MX records.  Something in the background isn't quite working.  Whereas, if I had created those records FIRST before I started the domain account, I'm almost certain it would have worked.

3. Another theory I have - but unproven as yet - is that if one is not going to delegate one's domain to Yandex so one only uses it as a mail host, that the MX records, CNAME, SPF and DKIM have to be changed at the Registrar.  Yandex doesn't seem to get it from VestaCP.  Those records need to be changed at the Registrar.

[rudra]

Jesus ! faaaaa..... my eyes and ears out... or in.. or whatever.

im sure me or someone could still set it up and make it work even after all this. the backends and such are working quite fine. it is just you keep messing something up.

you dont add mx records for a domain along with ns records for the same domain at the registrar or at the same point. thats plain i#*@tic. seriously !!

when the dns system works its way from top down trying to determine the ip of the receiving machine, it tries to find the responsible authoritative name server(s) first and then asks the name server(s) for the record of the associated domain. so adding mx record at any earlier step/point is as pointless as doing the backdoor expecting a baby.

also you adding/creating a nameserver at vestacp does not mean it is both working and accessible from outside world. test it may be ?!

may be first use the nameservers at cloudflare or at the registrar to set it all up. when you see that it works...just transfer the dns records to where you want them to be and only have ns records at the registrar pointing to it.

[Mashiro]

A very strange situation going on here. I have never experienced this with any of the services that I used for custom domain e-mail addresses (Zoho/Yandex/former GMAIL Apps) and DNS service providers (HE.net/Cloudflare/1984/Cloudns). I have never used it with a hosting control panel and its DNS servers though nor with the DNS servers of the domain registrar.

Sounds to me like there is something not properly working with DNS or the DNS records are indeed still not setup right. I'd be willing to look into the issue if you are interested @deanhills. That of course requires access to a few parts of your server/services used for this. Basic diagnostics for DNS could be done with https://www.whatsmydns.net/. You type in the hostname of the corresponding DNS record (e.g. mail.domain.ext) and select the corresponding type (e.g. CNAME) and see what the replies are. So if you use the hostname yourdomain.ext with the type MX the reply should be the MX record you setup with the MX server. If it isn't then there is something already wrong. Same with the other records. Of course all of this can also be done via NSLOOKUP but NSLOOKUP can only check from your location while the linked site checks from multiple locations world wide.

The only issues I ever had so far are a) DNS update simply takes its time sometimes (doing too many changes during this time can cause even longer waiting time ) and b) some domains are banned by the services (like all the stuff from afraid.org DNS or at the end Zoho also even banned eu.org when they still had the free service).

[deanhills]

when the dns system works its way from top down trying to determine the ip of the receiving machine, it tries to find the responsible authoritative name server(s) first and then asks the name server(s) for the record of the associated domain. so adding mx record at any earlier step/point is as pointless as doing the backdoor expecting a baby.

OK this I get.  Thanks for the feedback.  

also you adding/creating a nameserver at vestacp does not mean it is both working and accessible from outside world. test it may be ?!

OK you probably know one can't create a name server at VestaCP.  You can only add one.  So far with all of my VPSs I've registered two name servers with one IP at Namecheap, and then added them at VestaCP straight afterwards.  DNS propagation is very rarely an issue with Namecheap or VestaCP.  

may be first use the nameservers at cloudflare or at the registrar to set it all up. when you see that it works...just transfer the dns records to where you want them to be and only have ns records at the registrar pointing to it.

I'm a bit stubborn.  I don't like cloudflare name servers.  I like mine to be out in the open.  Obviously private, but open.  I'm a bit difficult I know.  

---

A very strange situation going on here. I have never experienced this with any of the services that I used for custom domain e-mail addresses (Zoho/Yandex/former GMAIL Apps) and DNS service providers (HE.net/Cloudflare/1984/Cloudns). I have never used it with a hosting control panel and its DNS servers though nor with the DNS servers of the domain registrar.

Zoho I'm OK with, no problems.  I checked after Yandex, and Zoho is still there.  Except I need to redo the domain that I'm using with Zoho, as the last time I used Zoho is a few VPSs ago.  Zoho for me is much more effortless.  All of it very easy to do.  I only used VestaCP when I set up Zoho - I think that was 2 years ago.  Verified the domain very easy, first time round.  And changing the MX, DKIM and SPF very easy - all of it in VestaCP.  DNS worked almost immediately.  Had e-mail boxes up and going within minutes.  I agree, it's supposed to be easy, but with Yandex it was a nightmare two years ago, it's not bad this time round, but far from perfect yet - it's probably going to be a project under construction for a while.  Could be psychological maybe - like a selffulfilling prophecy or something - me and Yandex.  

Sounds to me like there is something not properly working with DNS or the DNS records are indeed still not setup right. I'd be willing to look into the issue if you are interested @deanhills.

Thanks HR, I may take you up on this, but I've already removed all of the Yandex records from VestaCP - including the domain after that.  Just for now.  I'll let Yandex get over it for a while.  I haven't removed the account - doesn't seem to be possible, even though they say it is, but it says it takes a few months.  Then I'll try again.

The only issues I ever had so far are a) DNS update simply takes its time sometimes (doing too many changes during this time can cause even longer waiting time ) and b) some domains are banned by the services (like all the stuff from afraid.org DNS or at the end Zoho also even banned eu.org when they still had the free service).

That's true.  But with Namecheap in my own experience it's very rare it isn't fast.  Like when I have a new VPS I usually register the name servers first, and then create VestaCP, and by the time VestaCP is up and running, the domain DNS has already propagated.  I can get VestaCP up straight away.

[rudra]

sorry to say that I don't know anything much about control panels like vestacp. I never use them. I always read up online about settings and concepts and configure myself manually.
cause If i use vestacp then I will have to know its inner working a bit and where it keeps its settings and how it handles the changes and all that. or I will have bad days thinking about all the things that might go wrong. May be I have slight ocd. I am never happy working with blackbox kind of things.

that's why I didn't offer to help you. also I dislike the idea of having both name servers residing on the same physical system, even if they have their own ip. it is plain dumb.
also using your own name server is dumb too. it confers no benefits and a lot of problems or potential problems.
I always keep checking monthly reports on free name server rankings. cloudflare almost always tops. that's why I love them.

sorry for the strong words... I get carried away.

[deanhills]

sorry to say that I don't know anything much about control panels like vestacp. I never use them. I always read up online about settings and concepts and configure myself manually.
cause If i use vestacp then I will have to know its inner working a bit and where it keeps its settings and how it handles the changes and all that. or I will have bad days thinking about all the things that might go wrong. May be I have slight ocd. I am never happy working with blackbox kind of things.

that's why I didn't offer to help you. also I dislike the idea of having both name servers residing on the same physical system, even if they have their own ip. it is plain dumb.
also using your own name server is dumb too. it confers no benefits and a lot of problems or potential problems.
I always keep checking monthly reports on free name server rankings. cloudflare almost always tops. that's why I love them.

sorry for the strong words... I get carried away.

I'm happy with the feedback @rudra.  It's quality feedback.  When I do my DNS inspect with the tools on the Web, they say the same thing.  I.e. having both name servers residing on the same physical system.  I didn't know about own name server being dumb though.  I thought it was kind'a neat to have the same name servers as the domain I'm using.  Like a nice "set" - same domain, same name servers. Like who wants a nameserver that is called bruno or cynthia or all those names Cloudflare is using.

I still have to develop a flavour for Cloudflare.  I spent some time with them last week, and they do have lots to offer of course.

[rudra]

edit.
i just got the best link for you (and me too).. here

https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/que...ameservers

just please go have a read and make sure you read the comments too.


it simply exposes your ip to attackers among other things. attackers , even small time ones, can shut down your site with impunity even if you use cloudflare to hide behind.
also big dns hosters like cloudflare have multiple servers positioned worldwide in various geographically dispersed locations. so it is always the nearest set of servers that answers the dns queries. so impossibly harder to take down by simply taking a simple point. like they would for yours by taking down your vps.

also I always thought it was more silly than funny to ask top level servers for the authoritative name servers for mysite dot com and get that it is at ns1 dot mysite dot com with the ip as myip.

lol... mean a subdomain holding records for the domain... gaah
(though it works cause the reply contains the ip too from an A record passed on by the parent zone for the subdomain... otherwise it would be kind of circular)
apparently it is the case for almost all top levels as the respective zones reside on a subdomain... Read the above link.

[Kururin]

I wouldn't want to use yandex per say since it's a Russian site. You never know what they are saving (just out of sake of privacy). Except that functionality wise its awesome