Success, and thank you both for your patience and unstinting help. You've solved a thorny, if not arcane, dilemma: Public folder sharing is now available between Windows 8.1 and Nokia N8**

BACKGROUND: In older Samba setups and despite the absence of password for Windows 8.1 Public folder, samba still thinks a password is necessary. Any kind of password demand will prevent File Manager from accessing a "shared folder" This workaround utilizes the cifs command and lets N8** users exchange files with a password-less Windows 8.1 Public folder. [A shared folder in Windows XP, for example, does not have this samba problem]

For the future frustrated, here are the vitals of the set-up:

Install the magical ASUI from http://asui.garage.maemo.org/download.html

For screen rotatation and latest bug solutions, make certain the Diablo Community SSU repo is installed

After ASUI installation, run this command in root:

asui uu ; asui dit ; asui dis ; asui da ; asui dc

Along with many ASUI upgrades and fixes, this command will install the Command Buttons option in the ASUI's GTK menu and allow users to put a Share Mount and Share Unmount button in ASUI

The cifs.ko is needed to access the shares in File Manager. If you're running Diablo Turbo, the cifs.ko is available here:

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=2036

***The "Last DT test kernel" must be installed for this cifs.ko to load properly***

In root, copy the cifs.ko into /lib/modules/2.6.21-omap1/extra/

In rooted terminal or rooted Midnight Commander, create a new directory: /root/bin

In /root/bin, create two files: win8.sh and umount.sh

/root/bin/win8.sh:

#!/bin/sh
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.21-omap1/extra/cifs.ko
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.2/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.3/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.4/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.5/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.6/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.7/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.8/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.9/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.10/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.11/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.12/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.13/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit
mount -t cifs //10.0.0.14/Documents /media/mmc2/mnt -o noperm,sec=none,uid=user,guest && exit

This script is tailored for U.S. Comcast Xfinity router--Comcast uses a shifting dynamic address, so the script has to try and load the directory from a series of educated guesses. If your dynamic address is steady, day after day, or better, you have a static address, then obviously you only need one command that uses Windows 8.1's correct IP

With this script, the Windows shared folder will mount on your removable sd card in the directory /media/mmc1/mnt


Second file: /root/bin/umount.sh:

#!/bin/sh
umount /media/mmc2/mnt
rmmod cifs

This will safely unmount the mnt directory, preventing possible long reboot/shutdown problems

After files are created, in root, chmod both:

chmod 700 /root/bin/win8.sh
chmod 700 /root/bin/umount.sh

Test these scripts in root before making them buttons in ASUI

In ASUI, go to Settings/Command Buttons. When inserting the scripts, make certain "run as root" is ticked

Depending on the script's exploration of Windows 8.1's IP address, /media/mmc2/mnt may take a while to find the Public folder. Each IP address attempt takes about a second

Thanks again to all who helped me figure this out,
Jake