[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.