I have a domain www.cross-town-traffic.com, just registered. I pointed it to the Linode name servers.
Domain Name Server (DNS) (Edit )
NS1.LINODE.COM
NS2.LINODE.COM
NS3.LINODE.COM
NS4.LINODE.COM

But this does not seem right. Of course I cannot point my linode ip address, the process wants a name not an IP. As I look over my linode console, I am not sure how I create a name via the DNS manager and the docs I was pointed to are not clear.

I see a domain zone, i can edit my SOA record, I thought domains were only within my universe (linode). It must be something simple but I am missing it!

As soon as I pointed the website domain to the linode name servers it became unreachable.

Setting the name servers determines what DNS servers are responsible for the domain. You then set, on those DNS servers (Linode's in this case) the information for your specific domain.

You may want to start with creating a CNAME record "cross-town-traffic.com" that points to your linode's IP address. This can be done through the linode management portal. You probably would also want an A record pointing "www.cross-town-traffic.com" to "cross-town-traffic.com", or perhaps another CNAME pointing it to the same IP.

Thanks for the response, I created an A record in the manager,
hostname www.cross-town-traffic-software.com, put in my ip address 173.255.254.7 - there is no option to put cross-town-traffic.software in it.

Trying to add the CNAME cross-toren-traffic-software.com returns a You have entered an invalid target. It must be a vaild host name.

Guspaz has the the A/CNAME records the wrong way around. An "A" record points to an IP (e.g. you can point cross-town-traffic-software.com to address 173.255.254.7). "CNAME" records point towards a name (e.g. point www.cross-town-traffic-software.com to cross-town-traffic-software.com)

Ok, I have two A records www.cross-town-traffic-software.com and cross-town.traffic-software.com pointed to my IP. I am not sure if I need the www or not.

For the Cname, Do I alias www.cross-town-traffic-software.com to my actual domain which is actually ctts.com (in the SOA rec?)

Don't create an A record and CNAME record with the same name. Either create a www. A or CNAME record.

A/AAAA Records
Hostname IP Address TTL Options
www.cross-town-traffic.com 173.255.254.7 Default Edit | Remove
Add a new A record

CNAME Records
Hostname Aliases to TTL Options
cross-town-traffic-software.com ctts.com Default Edit | Remove

cross-town-traffic-software.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: CROSS-TOWN-TRAFFIC-SOFTWARE.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/
Name Server: NS1.LINODE.COM
Name Server: NS2.LINODE.COM
Name Server: NS3.LINODE.COM
Name Server: NS4.LINODE.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 14-dec-2011
Creation Date: 13-dec-2011
Expiration Date: 13-dec-2012

When adding things to the DNS manager, the domain is implied, so leave it off. You'll want one A record for "www", and one A record with a blank hostname.

If at all possible, avoid CNAMEs.

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Ok so I added a A record without the www pointed to my linode IP.
Then i created a Cname record with www in front of the domain name and created an alias to the true name within my server.

A record

Hostname IP Address
cross-town-traffic.com 173.255.254.7
Cname Record

Hostname Aliases to
www.cross-town-traffic.com www.ctts.com

Yeah, sorry about that, reversed my terminology.