[Samba] security passwd-encryption & netbios-names (wins)-RH 7.2 samba 221a (standard installation from rpm)

[Diembo]

Hey geeks,

I have been reading several faqs and howtos now and haven't come very far 
with what I really wanted to accomplish:
I have installed samba from the RH 7.2 distro rpm. I have set it up so I can 
access my windows shares on the linux mashine. I can "ping athlon" (which is 
the netbios-name for the win2k mashine) I can "ping linux" (which is 
obviously my linux-box). Both from my linux box, because I have given them 
names in the /etc/hosts file. I CANNOT "ping linux" on my win2k-box, but it 
works with the ip (192.168.0.2). SOMETIMES I can see my linux samba-server in 
the networking-neighbourhood on my win2k-box, but this is very rare and 
confusing me that it doesn't work always (I tried working around this with 
giving the "wins support = yes" option in /etc/samba/smb.conf file. When I 
set up a very low security-level I could do both, access my win2k-mashine 
from linux and vv, but since I gave smb.conf the "valid users = %S" option 
it doesn't work anymore. Even from my linux-box I cannot get write access to 
my shares (with smbclient //linux/public -U myusername; and entered my passwd 
for that user). I have read the encryption.txt file and generated a smbpasswd 
file with the command "cat /etc/passwd | smbpasswd > /etc/samba/smbpasswd" 
which should be the right location in my case (I suppose). I also checked 
whether it has the right content. Do I maybe need other files for samba 
aswell (smbusers, resolve.conf, ...)? I did all that and thought I would, at 
least be able to fully access my shares on the linux-box with the smbclient, 
with the right usename and passwd but it doesnt work. I am banging my head 
against walls and cant come to a solution. Could someone who has had this 
problem or similar give me at least a hint before I go completely mad? The 
hint from Don last time was very good. In that case I didnt think of an 
installed firewall on my linux-box because I havent set it up. I guess it's 
something similar this time but I just can't think about it. Thanks in 
advance.
-- 
Diembo working @ Linux :-P

PS: I have attached my smb.conf file for check.
I also would be happy about hints on the wins server option whether I have to 
do more than setting the option "wins support = yes", because it didnt work 
that way, the name linux still couldnt be resolved by my win2k mashine.

# smb.conf - file
[global]
   workgroup = heuer 
   server string = HEUER's Samba
   hosts allow = 192.168.0. 127.0.0.
   log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
   max log size = 0
   security = user
   encrypt passwords = yes
   smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
   socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
   wins support = no
   dns proxy = no

[homes]
   comment = Home Directories
   browseable = yes
   writable = yes
   valid users = %S
   create mode = 0664
   directory mode = 0775

[tmp]
   comment = Temporary file space
   path = /tmp
   read only = no
   public = yes

[public]
   comment = Linux share /home/samba
   path = /home/samba
   public = yes
   writable = no
   printable = no
   write list = @heuer

# end smb.conf - file