Interesting - when I was running FC6 I installed vnc + server via yum, and editing it's configuration file. I've never used the gui for this.
http://www.g-loaded.eu/2005/11/10/co...ver-in-fedora/
... all I've ever had to do is change the exported desktop.
What I mostly used this for was to use an old windows box via a crossover cable. I just ran the windows vnc server insecurely on it's defaults (since I figured I'd notice if someone was wiresniffing

) But I used to demonstrate vnc on linux to others (it's different from vnc on windows) ... even warping peoples minds by vncing to the local machine.
Looking for other peoples experiences in FC6, I don't find any mention of a gui approach - you seem to have missed an opportunity here. I do find lots of instructions like this:
http://www.wiredatom.com/blog/2006/1...fedora-core-6/
... which is exactly what I remember.
Here's a recent one - probably the one you should use:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=194101
... this is very complete and tries to anticipate everything that can possibly go wrong, so it looks more involved than it is. This is for f9 - it is substantially the same as the FC6 and f10 should be the same too.
Now I am not doubting your recollection here - just that what you describe has not been the standard way of doing this. If this is a fedora thing, then I'd imagine the program would be called system-config-vnc (or similar): a helper utility which you may have had to install separate so long ago that you just forgot.
Samba configuration methods have changed - it used to be a matter of editing config files ad nausium.
Now it seems to be pretty routine and mostly automated.
In Ubuntu, you rt-click on the folder you want to share and then click "share folder". That's pretty much it. More complicated uses of windows networking are, well, more complicated. It can also get dificult when there are lots of windows-network computers around ... the various auctions can tie things up.
I've only used samba client on fedora (due to that windows box) using NFS for unix-unix stuff. Usually server-client is more reliable and easier to secure than peer-to-peer. Though SMB has got better.
For recent fedoras - try:
http://miltonpaiva.wordpress.com/200...amba-fedora-9/
... I've picked this one as it is gui-freindly, but also includes the config file as a double-check.