One of the more common issues with connecting your Vista based PC to the internet is a lack of connectivity accompanied by the cryptic "Unknown Network, Local Access Only" message popping up in the message area/system tray. This is part of a 'feature' in Vista to improve security while browsing from public wifi connections, such as coffee shops. It has, like so many other new features, caused a few headaches when trying to connect home internet connections. But there's an easy fix.
Open your control panel from the start menu and find the Network and Sharing Center.

Straight out of the box, file sharing between a Linux PC and a Windows PC generally won’t work. The primary cause is Vista’s lack of NTLM authentication by default. It ships with the newer, more secure NTLMv2 enabled. Samba in Linux, on the other hand, is exactly reversed. It ships with support for the older protocols enabled and v2 disabled.