I have the wierdest problem.

I am using a Dell Latitude CPx with a Belkin 54g Wireless network card running under ndiswrapper, dhcp, etc. All of this is working correctly.

At both home and work, I connect to the appropriate wireless network no problem, browse the internet no problem, etc.

At WORK (in a Windows Domain):
Samba works perfectly, I can connect to a printer on a windows server using the gnome printer config utility and everything is good to go.

At HOME (in a Windows Workgroup):
Everything else still works fine, but I cannot see the local windows workgroup in any way shape or form. Internet access is still ok. Just SAMBA seems to be skewed. Any insight help telling what you need me to post to help me would be greatly appreciated.

Hello allauthors,

I also have a Dell Cpx laptop (the J750) and belkin 54g card using ndiswrapper - a kindred spirit! To be honest I had a hell of a time getting SAMBA to work until I got SWAT setup. I dont know what I was doing wrong but now its working beautifully. I know this isnt really a solution but unless you are already using SWAT then I suggest you get it set up and stop editing the smb file directly.
Regards
Chris

I haven't messed with the smb file at all, since I don't have any need to serve smb shares. I just need to connect to windows shares. smb.conf, as I understand it, only affects smb server service, not client utilities. In any case I normally use system-config-samba rather than editing file directly. Normally, smbclient problems relate to permissions on the windows half of the network, rather than the samba configuration, but I have a desktop PC (also with belkin (usb instead of pcmcia) and ndis) that is connecting to the workgroup just fine with the exact same settings. I have to believe that it has something to do with the having first set things up in the domain environment (although my laptop does not actually act as a domain client) vs. the desktop which has always and only been in the workgroup environment. Nevertheless, I will install SWAT and see if that makes a difference.

ANYONE who has additional suggestions your help will be greatly appreciated. I may have to go back to windows if I can't get printing on my home network.

Sorry, post not clear enough perhaps. Because I'm guessing you use the laptop at home and at work it would indicate that the smbclient is working fine. I was therefore indicating it might be an idea to run SWAT on your server and see if that helps, not the laptop.
Regards
Chris

I see. Unfortunately, Both at home and at work I'm in an all windows environment. I don't have any samba server running anywhere except the built-in sharing capabilities of individual windows workstations. The desktop I referred to is also acting only as a client. Thanks for the thought though!

Have a look at the LinNeighborhood
http://www.bnro.de/~schmidjo/
It is a nice front-end to surf win-shares and I found it helpful if you use a Linux machine in a all windows network.

Hope it helps

For anyone whose interested, linux firewall was preventing netbios name resolution/browsing.