Need help with server

I am trying to set up an active directory on a server. I have windows server 2003 installed on a desktop PC and i am having problems setting up my other pc's to connect to the domain and also setting up the DNC. When i set up the DNC it says i have a dynamic ip in the network and i need to change it to a static one.

DCHP is auto assigning ip address as the address of the router and the default gateway is the ip of the modem/

First off is it possible to use a desktop pc with one ethernet port as a server?
If so how do i solve my problem?
What should i use as the default ip, subnet mask and default gateway?

Network setup is in picture below.

Cheers
Raf

P.s. networking is my not strong point. lol

 

You should be able to use your Desktop PC as a server with no probmel.

Go to network connections>> LAN (or adapter you wish to modify)>> double click on it(or right click> properties)

Double Click on Internet Protocol TCP/IP and Select use the following IP address, and type a unique ip address for each client computer using the range. I.E between 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254

Submet mask should be 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1

 

so i will be able to connect to the internet of each computer still?

and what should be the ip of the prefer DNS server on the clients?

I did what u said and now neither the server or the client will connect to the internet.
Also when i try and get the client to connect to server it has the following error:

Note: This information is intended for a network administrator. If you are not your network's administrator, notify the administrator that you received this information, which has been recorded in the file C:\WINDOWS\debug\dcdiag.txt.

The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service location (SRV) resource record used to locate a domain controller for domain server.local:

The error was: "This operation returned because the timeout period expired."
(error code 0x000005B4 ERROR_TIMEOUT)

The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.server.local

The DNS servers used by this computer for name resolution are not responding. This computer is configured to use DNS servers with the following IP addresses:

127.0.0.1

Verify that this computer is connected to the network, that these are the correct DNS server IP addresses, and that at least one of the DNS servers is running.

For more information on how to correct this problem, click Help.