So i got my DHCP sorted out and each client gets a default gateway and
points to the server for DNS and the server gets its DNS from open DNS.

its working great! even after i got the DNS (and internet) working i still couldnt
log on to my domain...which was called FDS.homenet.

Then i reinstalled the server and called my Domain Ilonka.local and this works fine.
why did i have to add the .local and whats the difference if you .local or not,and
why was i not able to log on to my domain.(it was moaning about DNS)

and i have read but still dont understand what a fqdn (fully qualified domain name)
is?

you guys have been great,please help further,im learning so much!

The reason you need to add .local is because .homenet is not a top level domain (TLD).

However read here: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/44818/q-can-i-use-the-local-or-pvt-top-level-domain-tld-names-as-part-of-an-active-directory-ad-tree-name.html

It says not to use .local because it's not a reserved TLD. (Well, technically it says it's not reserved for local network use -- but it should be safe anyways.)