I having a hard problem getting the dhcp working on server 2008. one that will help do i need to have dns and dhcp or can i just have dhcp? Setup is modem>server>switch>clients

What is going on with the ip lease deal? You didn't say what is wrong. Are you on a domain? "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

You should set up DHCP so that when a system comes online it gets an ip address and then the netbios name and the ip address are forwarded to dns and entered there, you should also set up the WINS server.

You will need DNS for PC's to communicate properly, it resolves name to address I.E. testpc1 -> x.x.x.x Since you will your want DHCP server / server to see your clients, you will want DNS enabled. And yes, WINS is also recommended to be installed (along with DNS) and configured as another way for name resolution Thanks for any input.

WINS is completely unnecessary. I'm still amazed at the misinformation passed along. No, you don't need DNS if you have a single subnet and a workgroup. You need to provide a bit more info to get your question answered properly.

Install DNS, otherwise clients will not be able to access file shares using \\server1\files, they will have to use \\192.168.1.200\files. WINS is not needed if you have your DNS setup correctly.