Some times it is usefull to be ping netbios names from linux. To do so edit the file /etc/nsswitch.conf and add wins to hosts.

Find the line hosts and add wins to the end of line.

hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 wins

as root install winbinds

$ apt-get install winbind

If you would like samba to pull wins from DHCP run the following.

$ apt-get install samba-common
$ dpkg-reconfigure samba-common