[Samba] Ping is fine, cannot connect through Network Neighborhood

[RVNS]

I am running Red Hat 7.3 and samba 2.2.3a

I can see the samba server in network neighborhood however when I 
try to connect I
receive the following error:

 \\Puddles is not accessible
 A network error has occurred.  You might not have access to some 
network
 resources

my smb.conf file is as follows:

[global]

  workgroup = POND
  encrypt passwords = yes
  security = SHARE

[homes]

  guest OK = yes
  read only = no
  path = /

[AllFiles]

  path = /
  read only = no

Testparm yields no errors

I have set up the hosts file with the users.  the main one I am working 
with at this
point is "steve"

The work group name is "POND".

The client machine name is NEWT.

I have set up the smbpasswd -a steve   then set the password the same 
as on the
windows ME password for steve.  this is on the machine called NEWT

smb is running as a daemon.

.ns and .ssn are running on ports 137 and 139 respectively.

I have tried using the "DIAGNOSIS.txt for samba release 2.2.0-alpha3 
24 Mar 2001
troubleshooting guide to no avail.

smbclient -U% -L PUDDLES	yields the following

 sharename		type		comment

 homes			disk
 AllFiles			disk		AllFiles
 IPC$			IPC$		IPC Service 	(2.2.3a)
 ADMIN$		disk		IPC Service	(2.2.3a)



 server			comment

 PUDDLES		samba 2.2.3a



 Work group		master

 POND			PUDDLES

when i execute nmblookup -B PUDDLES _SAMBA_ I receive the 
following

 quering _SAMBA_ on 127.0.0.1
 tdb ((null)):tdb_open_ex:could not open file 
/var/cache/samba/unexpected.tdb:
 no such file or directory
 name_query failed to find _SAMBA_

when I execute nmblookup -B NEWT '*'    I receive the following:

 10.10.10.2 *<<00> 66.169.248.244*<00>>       


I'm not sure what other information to include at this point.

Please let me know if you have any ideas.


Thank you,

Steve