Addendum: I meant to mention in my first post that I also tried the Homegroup password. Actually, after further research, it looks like the Homegroup function in Win7 uses M$soft unique protocols and you can't connect using samba. I can't test this right now it being Easter and have family affairs going on, but I think if you share the Public folder thru the windows exlporer like the way you do with older vers. of windows it ought to work. Question?: do i have to create a new user account on the windows box and use that to connect?