Hello,
I am interested in a carrer in networking, but I don't know much besides setting up the standard router/WPA-PSK. I thought the best way to dive into this field was to do just that, and dive in!

So I got onto a computer that had a clean copy of Windows 2003, and began to toy around with DHCP. Needless to say, I didn't get very far. I got it set up according to http://www.windowsnetworking.com/art...dows_2003.html
that tutorial.

Now im not sure what exactly to put for the values in that tutorial. Whenever it asked for DNS/Router, I put my routers IP address.

How would I set up another computer to use my servers DNS/DHCP instead of the routers?

Basically I want to recieve all the traffic from the computers in the house on my server, and then route it from my server, to the router. I only want the router to deal with my computer, not anyone else. All traffic should go through my server. (I assume this is how a regular server would act?)

You're actually describing two different possible roles for the "server" computer, and therefore, two different possible network configurations.
Having the server machine run DHCP and DNS server software is one thing, and that configuration doesn't demand that all LAN traffic pass through it. In this configuration, the router is still the gateway device, but the IP address of the server is what you use for the DHCP server IP.
Regardless of any other role the server might play, having all LAN traffic pass through the server computer (and then from there to the router and beyond) would mean that the computer would have to function as a router/gateway device itself. The computer would need, among other things, two separate network cards installed in it. You would also need to install a switch in order to connect multiple LAN workstations to that machine.

Is there any particular reason that you want/need to use your server machine as a router when you already have the dedicated router device?

Ok, I see what your saying. I guess I don't really need the traffic to go through my computer, since I have a router. (Thats not typically what infastructures do, do they?)

I would like DHCP/DNS though. Can you recommend a good tutorial for that? When it asks for the gateway/router, I should give it my router's IP, right?

Will I need to get an IP from the router? If so, do you think it is possible for my server to get an IP from the router, but all the other computers get an IP from my server?

Thanks alot for your time. Im very new, and have had no training, so bear with me.

When you add another system in your domain, the system will automatically pick up the dhcp server and an automatic ip will be assigned straight away, no hassels. Thats the advantage of dhcp.

Gateways are mainly for internet usage. When you set up a DHCP server, it'll ask you which gateway and DNS to assign to the computer asking for an IP. There you can assign the IP of your router as your gateway. All the traffic will still pass through your PC as it is also a DNS server and DNS queries will be sent to your PC.

Mmm... not quite. While URL-to-IP resolution queries will be sent from the LAN workstations to the DNS server, the actual data packets to be transmitted (to the Internet) by the workstations will not pass to/through the DNS server. The DNS server simply responds to the workstations' resolution requests by passing the appropriate IP addresses back to the workstations; the workstations themselves are then responsible for establishing communication with their desired destination (which they do through the router, not through the DNS or DHCP server).

Well, some good news. I got the DNS set up correctly (I think), and active directory working, so far. But DHCP still isn't giving out addresses. I have activated the DHCP server with the active directory server, but still when my client computer starts up, and I connect to the active directory, the client computer gets its IP from my router, not my server. Any advice?

Conflicts can occur when you have two independent DHCP servers active on the same network. What you would do is disable the router's DHCP server and assign a static IP to the DHCP server computer.
That way, when a client computer issues a DHCPDISCOVER broadcast, the Win DHCP server will be the only machine available to respond.

By the way- as far as reference material goes, the networking books from O'Reilly Press are very good.

Thanks ALOT Guys. I'm really stoked. Active directory is working great, but I have one more question about that. By disabling my routers DHCP, and having my client computers connect to my domain, they got an IP from my server.

DNS Works as well, but I have a infrastructure question.

In a regular infrastructure, where/how are the files stored for the user. Should I just create a shared folder on my server for every user in the Active Directory, or is there some way for active directory to do this for me.

Is there also some way for the client computer to automatically load up their folder upon their first logon. So if I added a new user, it would be automatically set up to store files on the server.

Basically, how does server-side file storage work normally?

I think this is what you're asking about, yes?:
In an environment where users only log on from their own machines, account profiles are often kept on the local machines, in the usual \Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\ folders. However, in environments where users may need to log on to their own account from various locations, roaming profiles are created, where every user's profile data is located on a central server. This article gives a short (but pretty informative) run-down on roaming profiles; you can find much more by Googling for the term.