samba - Nov 1999 - Shared directory name length

Running Samba 2.0.3 on RH 6.0 serving public directories for guest
access. I cannot seem to give the share directories name which exceed 12
characters. If I do, I can see the shares in Explorer but if I try to
access them I get and "Access Denied" error. Same result with dir from
a
command window. I see nothing in the documentation. I know the obvious
answer is short share names but I'd like names slightly longer for these
new shares...