[Samba] Can't access Samba public directory from MS Windows

[Katherine Chan]

My Linux XP (hostname "isat", IP 192.168.1.8) is in the same workgroup
as my Microsoft PC running Windows 2003 (IP 192.168.1.7).
On my Linux host, I have a [public] section in the smb.conf file, as shown
at the end of this message.

When I typed the command
   smbclient '\\isat\public'
the following message was displayed:
added interface ip=192.168.1.8 bcast=192.168.1.15 nmask=255.255.255.240
password:

I typed in the password for the owner of directory /home/public.
The following text was displayed:
Domain=[WORKGROUP] Os=[Unix] Server=[Samba 2.2.7a]
Smb:\>

This shows that I can connect to a file service.

I then go to the DOS command screen on my Windows PC and
typed the following to map network drive g: to directory /home/public on my Linux XP
   net use g: \\isat\public

The following error message was displayed:
System error 53 has occurred
The network path was not found

I also tried the following:

>From the Windows PC
My Network Places --> Computers Near Me

I can see "isat" under the "Name" column with 
comment "Samba server"

But when I clicked on entry "isat", the following error message
was displayed:
\\isat is not accessible
The Network path was not found
I can ping the Linux IP 192.168.1.8 from my Windows PC 
and I can also ping my Windows PC IP 192.168.1.7 from the Linux XP
but I cannot ping the Linux hostname "isat" from the Windows PC.

My /home/public directory on the Linux XP has mode 0777 (rwxrwxrwx).
Do you know what could be causing this problem?

Thanks!

Katherine


=====================================================
Some of the relevant lines in my smb.conf file are shown below:

[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
hosts allow = 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.240  127.
security = user
  log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
  max log size = 0
  dns proxy = no

[homes]
  comment = Home Directories
  browseable = no
  writable = yes
  valid users = %S
  create mode = 0664
  directory mode = 0775

[public]
  path = /home/public
  public = yes
  only guest = yes
  writable = yes
printable = no