Trying to setup DC but client computers can't see it

Hi I'm having some problems (DNS I think) with a windows 2003 server I've
setup as a domain controller. Basically when I try and get computers to join
the domain it can't find the domain.

Here is some background information.

I work in a department where all our computers are connected to a university
domain. We login with active directory accounts setup on their DC server and
we get our IP address from their DHCP server which also configures DNS.

Now we are trying to setup our own Win 2003 server in our lab which will be
configured as a domain controller. Once setup we will join all our computers
to our domain and login using accounts setup in active directory. So the
computers will still get their IP address from the university DHCP server but
will be members of and login to our domain.

So I've setup the server has a DC and as part of the dcpromo routine I setup
the server to be a DNS server as well. Now the problem is that when I try and
join a computer to this domain it can't find my DC. I'm sure the problem is
with DNS because all the computers get their settings from the DCHP server
including it's DNS addresses it knows nothing about my DC right? I altered my
network settings on my computer to use my DC as the DNS and it seemed to work
last week, but now it's not working at all, it can't find my DC. So what
should my next step be? Do I need to ask the university to do something their
end or can I handle this setup from my end?

From a DNS point of view I thought I could set the DNS address of all the
client computers to point to our DC and then at the DC end add in the DNS
address for the universitys DNS servers so it could forward queries it
doesn't know about, does this sound ok?

Many thanks

.

Relevant Pages

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