Question : From dcpromo I get "The wizard cannot gain access to the list of domains in the forest." message.

Our problem comes from trying to promote a non-member server to a new (first) DC in a new child domain.  I wanted to add that our DNS is set up properly I can resolve the DC from the non-member server and if we add WINS we can make this work by having WINS supply the DNS server with the information. However I want to try to make this to work without bringing WINS back in. Any suggestions?

Answer : From dcpromo I get "The wizard cannot gain access to the list of domains in the forest." message.

you bascially answered the question yourself,,, you can't make a non-member server be a child DC of a domain (since it isnt a member of the parent domain yet).  You must first make the server be a member of the domain, and then run DCPROMO... it will then ask you if you want to make it be the DC of a new domain and you will choose yes, since it will be the first DC of the new child domain.

run dcdiag and netdiag on your existing DC first just to make sure it is actually setup correctly.