I have several domains registered with GANDI. a few of them are live, working websites/blogs.

I just started up my first linode -- have been running on a VH elsewhere that shall remain nameless. I wanted to try out DNS with the linode.

I modified one of my unused, idle GANDI domains so that its nameservers were ns1-4 at linode.com instead of the nameservers from my other VH provider.

I set up the most basic DNS config using the web control panel at linode.com, to associate my inode's ip address with the domain name I was trying to map.

checking GANDI database, all looks correct. 'whois' reports last mod to DNS registry on the correct date/time. but many hours later, the name (rootlesscosmo.org) still doesn't appear to map to the linode ip. and 'dig' results seem very strange: in the Authority Section, instead of the linode dns nameservers I specified in my GANDI config, I'm seeing GANDI's own nameservers!

did I miss a step? do I need a CNAME record as well as an A/AAAA record? is this problem with GANDI (they just changed their nameserver setup) or with my config attempt?

also: do I have to expunge the dns records from the old server at the previous VH provider's site? is there some confusion when one dns server (old provider) still thinks it should resolve for domain xxx.yyy, after another (linode) has been configured to resolve for the same domain? the sysadmins at the old service provider are no longer responding to emails (I have grave misgivings about the current state of their enterprise, hence the urgency of linode as a new platform for my web sites); if I cannot alter their DNS setup, am I unable to escape from their rackspace?

I think you are just seeing cached info - it can take a day or two for that to resolve itself if the original DNS info had normal TTL values.

It looks like you are fine from here:

$ dig -t any rootlesscosmo.org

; <<>> DiG 9.4.3-P1 <<>> -t any rootlesscosmo.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7945
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;rootlesscosmo.org.             IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
rootlesscosmo.org.      284     IN      A       64.62.228.161
rootlesscosmo.org.      284     IN      NS      ns4.linode.com.
rootlesscosmo.org.      284     IN      NS      ns1.linode.com.
rootlesscosmo.org.      284     IN      NS      ns2.linode.com.
rootlesscosmo.org.      284     IN      NS      ns3.linode.com.

thanks for the view from outside the time warp

that's encouraging.

my final question is still a bit haunting: if Nameless Service Provider's DNS server still thinks itself authoritative for foo.bar.baz, even though I have told GANDI that authority really resides with linode's DNS resolvers, is that going to be a problem? the issue is that Nameless S P Inc is no longer answering support email, no longer answering phones, etc. I suspect some kind of organisational collapse and am lifeboating as fast as I can. it may be impossible to get any change to their old DNS config. will this be nasty?

Then change you made with GANDI is what tells everyone where to look for the authoritative nameservers for your domain. The old provider's nameservers might still be answering as authoritative, but they should stop getting queried once your NS change has cleared everyone's caches.

I think you'll see no problems

thank you kindly Stever for prompt and courteous -- not to mention reassuring -- answers to relatively stupid questions. I'll try to come up with more interesting questions next time