Pointing a domain at a server is two DNS records and a wait for propagation. Here is exactly what to set and how to confirm it worked.
The two records you actually need
- A record: your domain (or subdomain) → your server's IPv4 address.
- AAAA record: the same, but pointing at the IPv6 address, if your server has one and you want IPv6 reachability.
That is the whole list for a VPS or dedicated server pointed directly at an IP. If you are using cPanel web hosting instead, point the domain at the nameservers cPanel gives you rather than an A record, cPanel manages the records for you from there.
Apex domain vs www
example.com (the apex, or root domain) can only take an A or AAAA record, never a CNAME, that is a DNS protocol limitation, not a Corenzy one. www.example.com is a subdomain and can be either an A record pointing at the same IP, or a CNAME pointing back at the apex, either works identically for visitors.
Propagation, and why "it is not working yet" is usually just time
DNS changes are cached by resolvers around the world for as long as the TTL (time to live) on the record says, commonly a few minutes to a few hours depending on your registrar's defaults. A change you just made can be live for one visitor and invisible to another for that entire window, that is expected, not a bug.
Checking propagation without guessing
Run "dig yourdomain.com +short" or "nslookup yourdomain.com" from a terminal, if it returns your server's IP, that resolver has picked up the change. A tool like whatsmydns.net checks multiple resolvers worldwide at once and is the fastest way to see how far a change has spread before assuming something is broken.
If DNS looks correct everywhere but the site still does not load, the problem is almost always the web server or firewall on that IP, not DNS. Confirm the record first, then look at the server.
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