Need help with unknown browsing problem

[Rob Brichler]

I am having a very bizzare problem and it doesn't seem like the answer is in any FAQ, documentation, or website that i've seen.  Maybe someone can help me out.

I have RedHat 8.0, running samba.  I want to share a printer and some folders with my Windows computers.  I set up samba like i'm supposed to (i think), and samba is running.  When I got to browse network neighborhood, the host name of my linux box shows up.  However, when I double-click it, a few seconds pass and I get a "could not connect" error message, "contact administrator to see if you have permission" or something to that effect.
I can ping the linux comp's IP address, but pinging the hostname times out.  
The weirdest part is, I cant even browse the shares locally from that computer.  I've used LinNeighborhood and xsmbroswer.  xsmbrowser, when I try to navigate to the host name, gives a "name_query failed to find name JIM" (Jim is the hostname).
I think it has something to do with dns lookups, or some kind of lookup.  So i followed the samba troubleshooting doc's instructions and manually added a host to window's lmhosts.  Afterwards, when I tried net view \\Jim, after about 10 seconds I got a "there is no service operating at the destination network endpoint" message or something like that.  but samba is running!!!  

I'm about ready to rip my hair out.  Can anyone help? it would be much appreciated.
thanks.