SMB Signing with Windows Server 2003

So what's the deal here? I've been search for days on how to connect to a Windows Server but apparently OS X is using a version of Samba that will not digitally sign communications with it. I'm having a REALLY hard time understanding why this isn't documented better aside from the three or four blogs I've found online. Apparently there are two solutions; change the settings on the server to only sign when available (IT guy won't do this) or buy a third party java application that will somehow sign for me. With Leopard supposedly being the most advanced operating system, why can't it do this one simple thing. I'm reading a post from 2002 that says the "current" version of Panther does not have the newest version of Samba so it won't work. Apple hasn't updated this in five years?