I'm having similar problems on win98 and Samba 3.0.9-1 (on Sarge). I've found a slight workaround: if I access samba by the ip address of the server from the win98 system it starts working. E.g. goto Run... and type '\\124.47.34.97' and press enter. Then I'm able to use the NetBIOS names as normal. This works until the next windows reboot.
Brian PS: Please CC, I'm not subscribed -- Website: http://netsoc.tcd.ie/~bbrazil
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