I'm using Ubuntu 12.10 on two machines, one laptop & one desktop. Faced the same problem when I used 12.04. When I try connecting to the other machine using 'Connect to Server', I give the correct user & workgroup details, but the system displays 'failed to retrieve server list'

I've tried editing /etc/samba/smb.conf file to:

    name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

I also added the other machine to /etc/hosts But, nothing worked. The output of smbtree is

naveen@tomkat:~$ smbtree 
Enter naveen's password: 
naveen@tomkat:~$

Used sources to solve problem myself:

• "Failed to retrieve share list from server" error when browsing a share with Nautilus
• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1114038

All help will be appreciated. Thanks.

UPDATE: After 'purging' samba and all its components (incl all config files), and reinstall, sharing workes in one direction (from Laptop to Desktop) but when I attempt to use the Desktop as server, same problem is still faced.

UPDATE 2 dpkg -l|grep samba output:

    naveen@tomkat:~$ sudo dpkg -l|grep samba
    [sudo] password for naveen: 
    ii  libcrypt-smbhash-perl                     0.12-3                                                     all          generate LM/NT hash of a password for samba
    ii  samba                                     2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5                          i386         SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix
    ii  samba-common                              2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5                          all          common files used by both the Samba server and client
    ii  samba-common-bin                          2:3.6.6-3ubuntu5                          i386         common files used by both the Samba server and client