If you are only talking a PC or two, then this might be the way to go. This is done with a modification to the Windows 9x registry. Here's what you do. Start the Registry Editor by clicking on the Start button, choosing Run and typing regedit . Make sure you type it exactly.
Case is important.
Press Enter, then double-click on your new entry. You will get a dialog box that allows you to change the value of this new key. Close the registry editor and reboot. The other method is to have Samba use encrypted passwords. To do this, look for this section in the smb.conf file.