[Samba] not seeing windows XP

[Shelagh Manton]

Hello,

I've got two problems in my very small home network. 2 xp (pro) machines
and me, who is the printer server on ubuntu. I've read through the samba 3
by example and the earlier chapters of samba 3 howtos, but there are some
things I still don't seem to be understanding. One of my big issues is
that one of the xp computers is totally invisible to me. I can't call it
using its name or it's (static) ip address. I have no problem with the
other computer. I can access the shared folders, copy, make folders etc. 

We have looked through the settings of this computer and can't spot what
might be different from the visible one. Has anyone else had this problem
and tracked it down? 

The two windows computers can see each other, so the network seems to be
fine on their end. 

One problem I do have is that while I am admin for my machine, I don't
control what happens on these machines as they were saved up for and
built by my sons. So I have to be wary of teenage territorial feelings.
I am using the standard ubuntu samba which is "Version 3.0.14a-Ubuntu".
One xp machine has been updated to service pack 2, but the one I can't see
is the one who hasn't. I would have thought from my reading that it might
be the other way around.

The second problem is that I don't seem to be understanding the printing
setup. (maybe 'cause I'm blonde?) Or maybe its trying to set up the
printer to work over port:9100. for an HPlaserjet6l, or probably one of
many different things. Oh well, I've just found another howto which may
help me. I'll leave this till later. 

At the moment, if they want to print I have to copy from the shared folder
and do it on my computer. If the niban wants to print, he has to copy it
to the shared folder, then I have to copy it to my computer, you probably
get the picture.

Shelagh