Windows 2008, Windows XP and VPN (join domain, browse network, ping FQDN)

Here is my situation.

HQ Office I have Windows 2008 Server. About 10 computers in this office and all on active directory. No issues there. Server IP of 192.168.0.250.

Remote Office A. 3 computers. They have a persistent VPN connection to the HQ Office (netgear routers). While I can map drives using \\192.168.0.250, first, I'm unable to map drives using \\server (to shared folders). I cannot ping by FQDN, only IP address. Second, I'm unable to join the remote office A computers to the domain by domain_name or domain_name.local (did not try to join the domain via IP address).

Computers in the remote office A have DNS directly to the server (192.168.0.250) (and DNS to the local router too).

Should I setup WINS on the server to accept netbios names and such for the VPN'ed computers that are remote? How can I get them to join the domain and be able to browse the network via network places, ping by FQDN and such?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

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