Strange LAN Behavior

[Mike A]

Greetings

I have a LAN with 2 linux, 2 Windows, a printer , and a NAS 
adapter/disk.  The NAS is essentially a windows/samba share.  My machine 
also has a USB drive that I share via Samba. The problem is that 
sometimes my machine doesn't show up and therefore neither does the the 
USB drive.  When I notice that this has happened, I reboot my linux box 
and all is well again.

Any ideas of what might be going on?

Also a curiosity, when I bring up Network Servers on my machine(linux), 
I see all the nodes and a Windows Network folder containing a Workgroup 
folder. If I open the Wrokgroup folder the nodes appear again.  What the 
significance of appearing twice.  Window machines only show them once.


Mike