Here's what I have:

• Windows XP running in VirtualBox 3.0.8_OSE r53138;
• Host OS = Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala";
• Windows network in my office with smb fileservers;
• Guest OS is connected to the internet and is sharing folders with Host OS;
• Limited networking expertise.

Here's what I actually need to do:

• Use MS Outlook in my XP guest with all its calendar-sharing features and stuff (if this is all done through the internet then great) - or find a Linux app that can do the same stuff;
• Map Windows network servers, eg. smb://server01/ in my XP guest (I can already access these in Ubuntu.

Here's what I've tried with no luck:

• Entering the server address (example above) in my XP guest windows explorer address bar (got a "could not access the file, path or drive" error message - maybe if I could enter login/pass information? But I don't know how);
• Mapping the server as a network drive (Windows could not find the path);
• Mounting the server as one of my shared folders (I couldn't find it through the shared folders browser in VirtualBox - is there somewhere in the Linux filesystem that Ubuntu keeps links to mounted servers?).