Networking hassles on a home network

[Joshua Solomin]

Thanks to those who advised me to install the Desktop version.  I did,
and now I'm onto my next hassle:  I have a home network behind a
wireless router, and I want to be able to see the different computers
-- a desktop and a laptop both running Windows Vista, in addition to
my Ubuntu machine.  On the good side the Ubuntu system can access the
Internet via the router, so I know the network is at least functional.

I know I need to set up and configure Samba to get file sharing.  But
even before that I wanted to set up remote access from the Vista
laptop to the Ubuntu system (SSH, VNC, that sort of thing), and that
part's not really working right now.  From Vista, I can ping the IP
address but not the hostname of the Ubuntu box, and I can't SSH to it
under either IP or hostname.

Any advice on the best way to get the remote access working to this
fresh Ubuntu install?  Or is this a Windows, or a router, question?

thanks,
Joshua