WordPress MU

I've read some posts and I've read a bit of complex wizardry from Matt, but I'm not sure how I proceed with subdomains.

The way I thought (hoped) it worked was: I create subdomains with MU (which I've done) and these are linked to subdomains I create with my host (using cPanelX in this case, through LinkSky).

But it sounds like that maybe I don't need those real subdomains because MU does things virtually.

What should my next step be?

no, you do not nead "real" subdomains. You cannot set up the virtual subdomains with Cpanel. Did you ask your host to enable widlcard subdomains for your account?

- Wildcard subdomains in their DNS server

- Wildcard subdomains within Apache.

Those are the two things you need to get your host to do for you. Specifics are given in the install instructions.