[Samba] newbie question/authenticate

[Condic]

Good news & bad news:  With the help of "Richard Nelson", I was able 
to generate a batch file, that will prompt for an username and 
password in Windows XP:

The following batch file, disconnects J: (incase a user forgot to 
logoff), then requests the username.
The "*" after the password will prompt for the password.  I was 
unable to get "net" to prompt for a password correctly.

edit netuser.bat
@echo off
set/p Username=Enter your Username:
rem disconnects "J:" incase a user forgot to logoff
net use J: /delete /y
rem the net use with a "*" password will prompt for a password
net use J: \\liuxserver\files /USER:%Username% * /persistent:no
j:
dir
rem the last pause will allow us to see any error messages incase of errors
Pause

Can someone try my batch file on Vista?

Now the bad news:  My batch file does not work under 
Windows98se.  The net use command does not allow a username.  The 
whole idea is to not have to logon to a windows98 machine.

Can someone come up with a direction or a simple solution that would 
work on Windows98???

Here is [files] section that I added to smb.conf.  Don't forget to 
add username/passwd to smbpasswd.
[files]
        comment = Work area files
        path = /students/%U
        read only = No