Like a good many others, I encountered difficulty getting Nautilus to
work properly with Samba, in my case using SuSE 9.0. It now works
properly. Based on my experience, I offer the following suggestions.
First, before trying to do anything complex, make certain that your
lmhosts and hosts files are configured properly. Be sure that all IP
addresses and host names the Linux side match exactly with those on the
Windows side. If you use fully qualified host names for Linux, use
fully qualified host names for Windows.
Second, make certain that you have created exactly corresponding user
accounts and passwords on your Linux and Windows systems. KDE's
Konqueror isn't fussy about this, but Nautilus is.
Third, if you run into trouble, open up a terminal window and use the
Linux smbclient command to determine whether you can establish an
interactive session independent of Nautilus. If the smbclient command
(e.g., "smbclient //hostname/sharename") fails, you have something
incorrectly configured and Nautilus will never work.
Fourth, doublecheck spellings of host names, domain names, workgroup
names, user accounts and password.
Fifth, use the SWAT utility to check the entries in your smb.conf file.
Sixth, if all else fails, read O'Reilly's exhaustive and very helpful
book, "Using Samba."