Help! I am trying to get windows vista pro to see my printer (xerox 8560 printer) that are connected to my laptop running Ubunto 9.10. The windows network cannot even "see" the printers!

What do I do to fix this problem?

Have you got a Samba server running on Ubuntu? Have you shared the printer in Samba? If not, those are the first steps.
After the printer works locally on Ununtu, and the above, on Vista, or any other windoze flavour, add the printer as a remote printer. You will have to load the driver from windbloze, from a CD, floppy etc. It will not download from a linux system. After those steps, it will print.

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How do I share the printer in Samba?

Look here

There are tutorials here --> http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking

that make it as simple as it can get. Understand, Samba can be very involved and complicated. You can thank Mr. Bill G for that. Printer sharing in linux to linux is much simpler.

this is reaaly getting complicated . . . I need a quick fix.

tried to connect the samba . . this is what i get-

urt@burt-laptop:~$ /etc/samba/smb.conf
bash: /etc/samba/smb.conf: Permission denied
burt@burt-laptop:~$

If this is Ubuntu, you need to use sudo to edit the samba.conf file. You will be prompted for the root password. This is normal for any linux system.

How?

This is what i get:

Warning: unknown mime-type for "/etc/samba/smb.conf" -- using "application/octet-stream"
Error: no "edit" mailcap rules found for type "application/octet-stream"
burt@burt-laptop:~$ sudo edit ~$ /etc/samba/smb.conf
Warning: unknown mime-type for "~$" -- using "application/octet-stream"
Warning: unknown mime-type for "/etc/samba/smb.conf" -- using "application/octet-stream"
Error: no "edit" mailcap rules found for type "application/octet-stream"
Error: no "edit" mailcap rules found for type "application/octet-stream"

Do you have a program named 'edit'? Ubuntu with a Gnome desktop should have gedit installed. The command would be -

'sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf' ( without the quotes ). It will prompt you for the root password. Enter it, then gedit will open the file.

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Thanks, I got it to work . . . now about shared drivers ))))????

I'm not sure I understand your question. Shared drivers? as in printer drivers? There aren't any. The printer has to have a driver for linux, and the manufactures usually supply the windows driver.

If you are not talking about printer drivers, please clarify your question.

Windows is giving me a message . . . unable to connect- access denied. In good thing is that the printer is at least "discoverable" by windows.

This has to do with the way you set up user access. Try connecting to the system, it probably will prompt you for a user ID and password. You have set those up have you not? Once set up, log in. Then try printing. There are ways of setting things up so you do not need to log in. It is your choice.