I have a simple setup and worked hard to get everything working.
The only thing that will not work is browsing xp from nautilus.
I can access xp from command prompts and read all of the fourms but nothing really clear on how to save the information so that the master browser always looks at smb///<computername>
I can even access xp when i type it in the browser but not by just clicking on network servers in x-windows.
I added the three lines to my smb.conf file

local
master
perferred

to all yes they were not in there before but that didn't help after a restart.
I am using RH9

I can see linux from xp
i am not using dns and wins is only setup on the linux server not on xp.
and if i use it on xp who's ip do i give it.
I have dsl coming through the xp computer not the linux box.

any suggestions,

Force the SMBd to be the master browser for that domain

I do not know if this is the answer your looking for but create a link on your desktop and add in the url field: smb:/

How: Right click desktop, select create launcher in gnome, change type to link and add smb:/