Hi Joe,
I appreciate your responses. I am certain that this should be doable and that the problem is with my setup, I am just stuck as to what the problem is. As stated, when I was just using tables the replication would fail. I sent the files to ESRI and we worked over a period of several weeks trying to figure out why - to no avail. That is when I switched to using the data in feature classes instead and found that I, and more importantly the users, really like the increased search function using Find so I have stuck with this design, but still cannot get the edits in the tables to replicate.
I don't know if it is a product of our strange server configuration (as stated the parent is on a stand alone not accessible to anyone else except the 2 person GIS team and IT that has no GIS experience) or with the remote servers on a different network from the parent, or if it an indication of a problem with my database structure.
I am new to this game and this really is my first big rodeo. Unfortunately, I am also extremely isolated in Afghanistan and do not have access to many resources or other GIS peers - therefore I am posting on this forum. I will take a copy of the database home with me the end of this month and see if my graduate professor can find the problem. If it works in another environment, then I know the problem is our server setup. Maybe I'll just let it go and continue to just extract new databases to the user servers on a weekly basis and leave at that, but it drives me crazy when something doesn't work right!
Again, thanks for your feedback.