>Ok, I checked the IP addresses and here's the skinny: the adapter has 192.168.1.0

That's the "Network", and is correct.

>the host address on linuxconf is 192.168.1.1 and the netmask is 255.255.255.0.

That sounds good.

>There is also the loopback address which I didn't change from the default.

Your loopback address is always 127.0.0.1.

>The same subnet mask is set on the NT workstation PC TCP/IP properties. The address on the NT NIC is 192.168.1.2

Good. Both machines are on the same network.

>I also specified a default gateway address hoping to get it working to no avail.

You don't want to do that if you don't have a machine acting as a router (or an actual router).

>Both machines are running under workgroup "WORKGROUP".

ok

>What is conflicting is that when I start nmbd it states that it is running on subnet 192.168.1.x (something). Shouldn't it be the 255.x value?

Nope. That is correct. The 255.255.255.0 is the netmask. It defines the class of the network (range of IP's). The SMB protocol only works on single class C's at a time (255.255.255.0 is a class C network).
Are you running WINS? Are you doing any sort of filtering on the NT machine?
Can you post or email your smb.conf file?

j