I am using vectorlinux (slackware 9.1 distro) on a pII350
This computer is the gateway for about 5 Winxp clients.
The Win xp computers can ping each other & surf the net thru the Linux computer.
They cannot ping the linux computer by name only by ip address.

The linux comp can also surf the web using mozilla, and at the command line it can ping specific ip addresses, but it can't resolve names on the internet or on the LAN.
If I run findsmb it finds the computers in the workgroup by name and shows the ip address, but if I try to ping the computers by name it says "ping: unknown host office"
If I ping using ip address it works.
LinNetwork does not show Linux as one of the smb computers. Depending which computers are plugged in different computers are shown as the LMB.
All computers are set to the same workgroup name.

My smb config file is shown below.
All the Win XP computers have fixed IP addresses.
I am using the basic firewall script described in HOWTO IPMASQUERADE
I can supply further information if requested.

# Samba config file created using SWAT
# from localhost (127.0.0.1)
# Date: 2003/12/17 12:08:59

# Global parameters
[global]
workgroup = HKSCHOOL
netbios name = LINUX
server string = Samba Server
encrypt passwords = Yes
ssl CA certDir = /etc/ssl/certs
log file = /var/log/samba.%m
max log size = 50
os level = 99
preferred master = Yes
domain master = Yes
wins support = Yes

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
read only = No
browseable = No

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = Yes
browseable = No

You have you linux box set as a WINS server are the windows boxes registering the ip with with linux box via WINS.

Yes. The wins server setting on all the XP computers is set to the ip address of the linux computer 192.168.0.1

What are the contents of /etc/resolv.conf ? It sounds like you're not pointing at a valid DNS server (that's the problem with no Internet name resolution). As for the problem of internal name resolution, I'm not aware of Linux being able to use WINS for name resolution on protocols other than SMB, but perhaps it's possible. Another solution would be to put all the proper IPs and hostnames in /etc/hosts. The last solution would be to setup named (BIND) and configure it to only listen on your internal interface. Use that to configure a local DNS zone to resolve the names internally (you would have to populate the zone file by hand to get started).

What about /etc/nsswitch.conf?