[Discuss] LAN

[fishclan-3]

I am still having trouble setting up my home network any help appreciated.
Problem 1:
I have configured samba and can see and access the shares on my laptop
(FISHCLAN-2 XP) from my
desktop (FISHCLAN-3 Mepis). But there does not seem to be any memory of
the previous network connection after a reboot either through automatic
look-up or through the bookmarked address (using smb4K).
There is a dialogue box that announces that:
AN ERROR OCCURRED WHILE TRYING TO MOUNT THE SHARES.
details: CONNECTION TO FISHCLAN-2 FAILED
	SMB connection failed.
If I open samba and manually connect to fishclan-2 (192.168.1.100) the
nework comes up and there is no problem accessing the fishclan-2 files
from fishclan-3.
Question: is this normal behaviour of samba or can fishclan-2's IP be
put somewhere so that the connection is automatic through the bookmark
function?

Problem 2:
The laptop (fishclan-2) sees the network (fishnet) and sees the samba
shares of fishclan-3 but cannot enter them. The message is: FISHCLAN-3
IS NOT ACCESSIBLE. CONTACT THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THIS SERVER TO FIND OUT
IF YOU HAVE ACCESS PERMISSIONS. YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO USE THE
NETWORK RESOURCE. NETWORK PATH NOT FOUND.

All shared fishclan-3 folders are owned by fishclan-3 and rw accessible
to USERS

Do I need to add fishclan-2 to the USERS group (and if so should this 
be in the //share/share form?) or is there some other
issue that I am not seeing?

Stan Fisher