DNS assistance requested please : I'm lost in the fog that is dns

Ok, let me begin by saying that while I am in the IT/IS field, I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to administration of webservers and DNS stuff. However I am moderatly capable of doing somethings on servers...

here's my setup:

1 server(mi1) - running windows 2003 web server- no active directory on this machine allowed.

1 static IP (192.168.1.2 inside and another number for the outside 216.196.194.xxx IP) located behind a linksys, wireless & four port router with IP forwarding on 80, and 53 to my server. There are 3 other PC's and 1 wireless device attached to this router, each work and can access the outside perfectly fine.

1 domain purchased from URL 8.95 registar for 1 year -plug is over-, who want the 2 dns servers for my domain, so it can link up. the domain (URL) is parked on there "parked" servers.

so what's my problem?

when I goto set up the DNS on the same server I'm completely lost as to what record files i need and how they should be configured. my questions are these:

a- what record types do i need in each zone?

b- can i even run the IIS server on the save Machine as the dns? if yes should I? the webserver isn't going to be getting hammered at all, infact nominal traffic. more than 3 users at any given time would be unheard of.

c- why doesn't microsoft provide a "wizard" for this sort of function? they have wizards for everything...

i've asked my ISP and they tell me that they allow dns services to my static and that as far as there concerned they are out of the picture, just pay them some money for the static ip.

Every domain needs to have this information:

1 SOA record which give some control information about the zone

multiple NS records which specify the name server domains hosting the zone.

And 'A' (a.k.a. 'host') records for each domain that is supposed to host services. (i.e. domain.com and www.domain.com should have an 'A' record pointing to the IP addres of the webserver)

A domain (or more accurately, a 'zone') can only specify information for itself and its sub domains.

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Don't listen to doom sayers who try to tell you not to host the dns server on the same server as the web server. Do whatever you want.

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Since you chose Godaddy as your registrar you won't be able to use the same IP address for 2 name server domains which is almost always required.

Thanks for the help, i'll reply back with more if i can't get it figured out.

the only one that it (windows 2003) didn't create was the host record. it seems that I set it up right, now i wait? point the godaddy.com stuff to my dns name?

yeah, specify your domain/IP as the host of the domain with godaddy.