First let me say that I am completely new to ubuntu. That said, here is my problem. I need to access files and a printer that are on a vista pc from my laptop which is running ubuntu 8.04. I have a home network set up with router connected to a sat. internet modem. I want to access the vista computer wirelessly. I can access the internet just fine. I can also see the computers on our network when I click places>network, but when I try to click on the computers nothing shows. When I try to set up the printer using samba and click "browse" it shows the name of our network but not the computers. I really need to get this network problem resolved....HELP???

On another note...is anyone's keyboard quirky and jumping around in ubuntu when it didn't in vista?

The first step is to make sure the Vista machine has File and Printer Sharing turned on and that the printer is configured as being a "Shared" printer. You may also need to change settings on any firewall in use on the Vista box. Then try to get basic Samba client services working on your Linux system.

http://julien.herbin.ecranbleu.org/samba_client_howto/

This how-to was written around a Debian system, so should work well for your Ubuntu system. Once you get a basic connection established, then you can focus on getting a printer working.

The basic tool for connecting to Windows networks and computers is Samba and the basic tool for printing in Linux is CUPS. You'll need to wade through both to get the printer connected and working.

The Vista computer is already shared...we've had it that way for the other 5 computers in the household...and the printer is also shared already. I have installed and set up samba too. Is there something else?

Well, I have tried all the things I was told here and in places I researched and still no luck. I finally decided to try downloading kubuntu desktop into my ubuntu and try konqueror. With that I am finally able to print over our home network and share files like I needed to. Apparently nautilus is still too glitchy to work right so I will use this for now. Just thought I'd share where I was at with this for now.