Wins server

Do you have a BDC at the other branches? I am assuming you can not see other machines in network neighborhood at the other branches?

Here is an answer I gave a while back on wins and different subnets.

You need to have a browse master per subnet. The easiest way to have a browse master per subnet is to set up BDCs per subnet.

Here is some information about browse lists I answered another browser/WINS question with.

Just some information about browse lists. A browse master on a given subnet broadcasts a request for all computer to respond with domain/workgroup and computer name, it collects that information and waits for the domain master browser to request its (the subnet browse master) browse list. The domain master browserthen collects all browse lists for all browse masters that it knows about collates the lists and then rebroadcasts the list down to the browse masters. Having a BDC on a subnet without a PDC will insure that the BDC (default configuration, no registry "tweaking") is always the master browser for that subnet. By default when a BDC starts up it checks to see if there is a browse master on the subnet, if there is, an election is held and if a PDC exists on the same subnet the PDC always wins, but if another BDC already exists the one that has been active the longest wins the browse master election, if a win9x box is browse master already, the BDC wins the election, as part of the startup after the election, it registers with the primary wins server as a browse master (0x020 record in wins)

Hope this helps.

What do you mean when you say that the WINS server does not work for your other branches? Can you ping the Wins server by IP address from your other branches? If you cannot, then you have a routing problem independent of WINS. If you can ping by IP address, then I am assuming you cannot ping by name if WINS is not working for you.

If you do not have a DHCP server at your branch sites that is providing your clients with the WINS server address and default gateway, then you need to manually input the WINS server IP address and the Default Gateway address under Network Properties of all the PCs at your other branches.

You do not need a BDC at your remote branches in order to browse your WAN. If your clients can resolve names to IP addresses across your WAN (which is what WINS will do if working properly), then the master browser or backup browser does not need to be local.