Accessing samba share from WinXP Home

[nighthawk2400]

I've install ubuntu server 11.04 on an old computer to use as a torrent / file server box.

I'm having problems accessing it from our desktop which is running WinXP SP3 Home.
I'm fairly certain the samba server is properly configured because I can accesses it from another computer running Win7 Pro simply by typing '\\ubuntu' into the address bar of windows explorer. I can also access it from another linux box using 'mount' and 'smbfs'.

However, when I type '\\ubuntu' into the address bar of the WinXP machine it says "Windows cannot find '\\ubuntu'....".
I've done piles of internet searches, but all I can turn up is stuff about how XP home can't join a domain, and how you can't set up the linux box to be a primary domain controller, so that you can bring a profile with you to any computer.

All I want is to have the xp machine to be able to access a shared folder on the linux server.

Additional info:
The XP machine is not have any problems connecting to the server because I can use PuTTY and TightVNC to log into it.
I have lots of experience with linux/command line, etc. but have almost no experience with networking.
My smb.conf: http://pastebin.com/zHtLkuY8

TL;DR: How do you get a WinXP Home comp to access a samba share on a local linux box?

[LarryJB]

have you tried accessing the server via the IP address rather than the host name?

[Ian]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Additionally to Larrys advice have you tried using Network Neighbourhood in Windows Explorer? Your ubuntu machine should come up as a share that you can just click on and connect to.