thanks for your response. i am using xp home. although i am not using the samba server as a pdc, perhaps the fact that xp home cannot join a pdc, while other versions of windows, including earlier ones like me and 98, can join a pdc, might have something to do with the problem. i am not a network guru, but i do see a potential coincidence here in that i don't have the problem with 98 or me, but do have it with xp home.

i originally had the same problem with a win2000 machine, but was able to solve that problem. i read an article online about using the "net use /delete" command and that this command would get rid of the network connections. the article indicated that an original incorrect password might have been "cached" and that is what causes the "invalid password" prompt. this solved the problem with 2000, and i have tried to do the same with xp home, but to no avail. unfortunately, i do not have enough networking knowledge nor experience to understand the "net use /delete" command to use it fully, but i get the feeling that this would not solve the problem for the xp home computers. i used it for every network connection between the linux computer and the xp home computer, and it didn't solve the problem. i am thinking of either upgrading the computers to xp pro since i am looking at making samba into a pdc, or go backwards to win2000 since i can get this pretty cheap on ebay.

thanks a lot for your time, but i think at this point i am giving up on this problem and will most likely have to do the upgrade root to solve it.

paul