Firstly I am a newbie at Linux....

I have installed my SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 on a computer, fresh install. I run it under the KDE interface mode. I do believe Samba Client is installed. I do have a Windows Share Icon and have the username/password/workgroup in it. From my XP machines I cant see the Linux Server, I do see it listed in LanGuard Network Scanner and it does get out to the internet.

I am wanting to start out by making this a file sharing server, eventually replacing my Windows Server. My current network setup I am setup using WORKGROUPS. All machines on network are XP.

I am sure more questions will follow

Make sure it's running also: ps -ef | grep smbd

Try starting the nmbd process if it is not running:

/usr/sbin/nmbd -D

and see if you see the shares.

How do I make shares? I have gone to the Windows share but dont see anything about sharing directories.

You shares are (usually) listed in your smb.conf file. You can check the samba documentation for info on setting up these shares, or if your smb.conf is already populated with comments, you may be able to squeeze by with that.

Cool