Starting from the beginning:
There are a mix of WinXP and (mostly Mepis/Antix) Linux boxes all around the school.
Is this a Microsoft domain using Active Directory?
localhost:631
This is used to setup Cups for printing. You can specify the remote printer by the protocol it uses
Http,ipp.Lpr/Lpd. After you set the protocol you need to specify the ip address of the printers host
(the one that has the printer attached).
when i try /usr/bin/smbclient -L 205-t -U admin i get an error message.
What is the error message?
Perhaps the box is not in the workgroup (smb:cong seems to indicate it is) -- i am used to a GUI to name the computer and join a workgroup, which of course Vector doesn't have.
VASM should allow that iirc is under network.
For printing this may help get you started:
Printing To Windows PCs
Connecting To Windows
Figure 2. Network Printing
SMB and CIFS are the Windows file and printer sharing protocols. We use Samba to speak to the Windows PCs using these protocols. Before configuring CUPS we should make sure we can connect to the Windows PC with smbclient.
The following is an example of creating a connection to a Windows PC:
/usr/bin/smbclient -L rice -U fred
added interface ip=10.6.7.234 bcast=10.6.7.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 10.6.7.8 ( 10.6.7.8 )
Password: (not shown)
Sharename Type Comment
PRINTER$ Disk
INKJET Printer
STUFF Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote Inter Process Communication
The command shown asks for a list of shares on a Windows PC named "rice", with the user id "fred". The result shows a printer named "INKJET".
If Windows naming service is unavailable you will need to specify the IP address of the Windows PC with the -I switch as in:
/usr/bin/smbclient -I 10.6.7.8 -L rice -N
For more information see the Samba documentation about smbclient usage.
HTH
Bigpaws