A desperate Newbie here.

I'm trying to set up two nameservers on the same server, using WHM. Apparently I'm not assigning my IPs to my nameservers correctly, as when I check IP usage, the two IPs in question are listed as unused.

Can someone explain, step-by-step, how to do this correctly?

WHM will not mark IPs as used when you just add a DNS zone using an IP. If you want to make sure nothing else gets assigned to them, you'll need to use the reserve function.

Thanks, that's useful to know. But it still doesn't help the the problem. I cannot figure out how to make the system recognize my nameservers. When I go to to my registrar I can't change the dns settings to point to the new nameservers. I've tried pointing different domains, registered with different registrars, but I've gotten the same result. And when I click on "Add an A Entry for this nameserver" "under edit settings," I get the message "Cannot determine ip." I realize I'm probably missing something simple or that I've made a very stupid mistake, but I can't imagine what.

Have you actually registered those nameservers at your registrar? If you have not, that's part of the problem, as you cannot assign domains to unregistered nameservers unless the registrar is completely clueless.

1. Set up the nameservers on the machine (edit the setup to use those, add the necessary DNS zones for each).
2. Register those nameservers at your registrar.
3. Wait. You must allow for propagation.
4. Start assigning domains to those nameservers.

The add an A record in the setup portion of the WHM is fairly useless, IMO, since when you add the DNS zone for the nameservers, you have effectively done all you need to do on the server side.

I think I've licked the problem now. Should know for sure tomorrow. I'd tried several times to register the nameservers but the registration never went through. Thought the problem was in the server settings, but I went back and tried again to register them, and this time they appear to have been accepted. Thanks again for assistance. This is a great forum!