I'm building a small text network at home with Server 2003 & a few XP Pro workstations. I've completed installation and the network topology includes the workstations and server connected to a switch which is connected to a router.

I have finished all the installations and ran DCPROMO to build up my AD on the Server. I have the Server configured as a DNS Server and it is pointing to itself. Its secondary DNS Server is the router, still running that feature.

The workstations are configured to pick up IPs from the router through DHCP. I statically entered in the ip address of the Server for the primary DNS and have the router as the secondary.

Here is where I ran in to some problems. I wasn't able to ping anything. I figured that it had to do with the firewalls, so I configured each workstation to allow Remote Desktop & allow ICMP.

Now I'm able to ping the desktops from the Server, but unable to ping the Server.

I decided to try and do the same to the Server. I clicked on the Windows Firewall icon and it gave me the message, "Windows Firewall cannot run because another program or service is running that might use the network address translation component (Ipnat.sys).

BTW, I have three NICs on my Server.

I also tried adding my workstations to my domain, but was given a DNS error that basically said that the domain did not exist.

Thanks in advance.