incorrect password

[A. Benjamin]

Hello list,

Currently I have upgraded again to Linux-Mandrake 7.0. I don't think I'll 
upgrade anytime soon. Nonetheless, I have made tremendous inroads with Samba. 
With RedHat 6.0, I could not get the Linux box to show in Windows Networking 
Neighborhood; now I can visually see it and it prompts for a password. Cool, I 
said no! It's just a password issue and I have it fixed in no time. Well, I am 
still trouble shooting.

Here are one tangible tidbit I have:  (1) There is a password problem, because 
in /var/log/messages it reports "Aug 21 17:41 peagasus ((which is my linux box)) 
PAM_pwdb [4277]: authentication failure; (uid=0) -> ben$.

The password is correct, both in the database when I use "smbpasswd -a username" 
and when I type it. I thought encryption ahd something to do with it so I 
changed allowing null passwords. It didn't work either. 

Any suggestions?