Multiple workgroups : Multiple Subnets

[Alex H. Vandenham]

I am still trying to make samba work over a WAN with multiple workgroups
although I am just about to throw in the towel.  I had hoped to find a solution
that would permit a Windows PC to browse a (MS) workgroup (ie retrieve the
browse list from the workgroup master browser for a remote (MS) workgroup when
that MB is NOT a samba server).  Since WINS only provides the broadcast
address of the remote LMB and that broadcast will not reach the remote LAN,
here are some of the other things I have tried;

1) force samba to use lmhosts before wins (resolv order), and
put the name of remote workgroup LMB (other than the remote samba server)
in the lmhosts file (since lmhosts permits the use of that 16th host type byte)
-However, it appears that samba does not refer to the lmhosts files for WINS
requests - only for local name resolution (is that correct?)
2) Add an entry in the Local (Win) PC lmhosts file of the type
<ip address> hostname#1d #PRE #DOM:<workgroup>
-That doesn't work either

My question(s) :  

(1) When a windows PC is used to browse the network, and the
user clicks on a (MS) workgroup name, does that result in a broadcast netBIOS
request or a WINS request (or both) or something else? 

(2) If a samba server receives a request such as the one from (1) above, does
it respond, and if so, where does it obtain the information for the response. 
(Intuitively, there's no point for samba to respond to a broadcast request
with a broadcast address.) 

(3) Since (obviously) DNS and/or a "hosts" file can not help in
retrieving a browse list from a remote LMB (resolving a (MS) workgroup name?),
if there any other way that an lmhosts file can be used to provide the info
required for the problem above(either on the local samba server or on the
local PC).  

(4) Has anyone successfully implemented a "broadcast forwarding" solution that
addresses this problem. 

OR, is it that every workgroup must have a samba LMB on the local LAN and a DMB
somewhere on the WAN. (And samba can only be a LMB/DMB for a single workgroup)

TIA

Alex Vandenham
Avantel Systems