i have a cable modem connected to a router, and i have my PDC W2K server (DHCP,DNS,RRAS) with 2 NIC's and 2 clients to connect to this mini network domain i want to set up and learn to administer at my home. I have a 5 port switch. Will i need to connect NIC #1 to the router with its ip address to be assigned automatically by the router/isp, and then have NIC #2 connected to the switch with its ip address statically assigned? for example NIC #2 ip address 192.168.1.4 - submask 255.255.255.0 and DNS 192.168.1.4?? i want the clients to have internet access, all the clients will be connected to the switch. were do i go to configure the DNS requests from the clients to be forwarded to the DNS servers of the ISP? i know i have to configure this on the server but where? help, this simple little network has been confusing me for weeks.!!

internet goes to nic1 in the server server nic2 connects to switch pcs connect to the switch in the DNS forwarders tab [not to be confused with forward lookup zone] you put the isp's dns server ip addresses. your pc subnet needs to be different from the internet subnet and you need to engage/configure RRAS to route between the two subnets. This is covered in training material available online or your local bookstore. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

so NIC #1 gets its ip address assigned by the router right? NIC #2 gets its ip address assigned by me statically right? to find out the dns server(s) used by my ISP can't i just do an ipconfig /all and then get those values that are configured for NIC #1? if the router is 192.168.1.1 thats connected to NIC #1 then what should i assign to NIC #2 192.168.2.1 for its ip address (different subnet)? this server will be also a dhcp and dns, for its scope i will then put 192.168.2.5 - 192.168.2.10 this is the portion of the network that confuses me the most!!