linux server networking

[Scapegoat]

So there are some knowledgeable computer people here.

having a bit'o'trouble.

just set up my linux box, running xubuntu, SSH, webmin, samba, torrentflux, phpmyadmin, apache, blah blah blah.

my main issue at home is, when i first got the thing set up it showed up right away on my windows 7 desktop in the network section... not it does not. i presume it's because i changed some stuff w/ samba on the shared directory and this is causing there to not be a public shared folder? I can map a network drive to my user folder however

the other main issue is, i cant SSH into the computer from work.

i've gone ahead and completed steps w/ no-ip.org and have confirmed that at least port 80 is working correctly... and i was able to SSH into my server from the desktop (on the server's network) via the domain name. I'm wondering if work has 22 or 2222 ports blocked, which wouldnt make sense considering I'm in IT and use it to commit files to cvs from my working environment.

and the last issue is with torrentflux... i can download **** by adding the torrent url directly in, by searching pirate bay and grabbing the "download this torrent" link. however, i am unable to perform searches with the software (no results from anything)

ultimately, i'd like to be able to hit my server to play music and to occasionally work on my own **** when it's slow. (so i'd like to map a network drive to it)