active directory access problem

[pkaplan1]

From kubuntu 9.04 I'm having problems accessing Active Directory shares.

I can get to them in konqueror using the smb:// protocol or using 
Py.Neighborhood.  The smb approach through konqueror, while secure (It 
asks for a password), is kind of klunky since directories don't get mounted 
and so is really only useful for moving files to and from the directory, not 
for working with them.  Py.Neighborhood only works if I enter my network 
password in the configuration dialog, which then stores the password in an 
open text file (although the file is restricted by ownership privileges), Also 
Py can't sort the servers it sees by name (our network lists thousands of 
them) and so it's a PITA to use.

For many years, I have successfully used smb4k to mount AD shares, but 
v0.10.2 can not see any of the network servers or mount shares using the 
"mount manually" command.  Older versions would show all of the domains 
ofter scanning and then present all of the servers on the domain listed in 
smb.conf if I double clicked on it.  Thereafter double clicking a server name 
would present me with a username/password dialog.

Depending on the config settings in smb4k, attempting to mount a share 
manually is met with "no rights to do that" even after entering the correct 
username/password, or just a choke.

Has anyone used any other gui tools for mounting AD shares?  If gnome has 
a tool, what package is it in?
Since the smb:// protocol works, shouldn't I be able to mount/umount 
shares from the command line?  What would be the proper syntax so that I 
still get challenged with a username/password?