[Samba] Samba / Vista Problem

[William Witteman]

I have a problem - I am trying to set up shared folders on a Debian etch
machine, and then access them from a bunch of Vista Business machines.
I set up a very basic smb.conf, and when I request the hostname of the
Linux machine, I am prompted for a username and password.  I enter them,
and I see the shares that I expect to see.  If I attempt to create a new
folder, however, I get the following error message:

Title: Item Not Found
Text: Could not find this item
This is no longer located in <%3 NULL:OpText>.
Verify the item's location and try again.
     $SHARENAME

     Try Again     Cancel

I have tried everything I can think of and I am at my wit's end.

Details:

client OS: Vista Business
server OS: Debian etch
Samba version: 3.0.24-6etch9

smb.conf
[global]
log file = /var/log/samba-log.%m
lock directory = /var/lock/samba
share modes = yes
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/smbpasswd

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
read only = no
create mode = 0750

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

[public]
comment = Public Stuff
path = /home/public
public = yes
writable = yes
printable = no

Thanks for any help.
-- 

yours,

William