Anyone out there with experience on handling NULL values in remote views to a SQL Server 7 backend?

I am curious to know how you handle the problem, as the behavior seems odd. I have a table on the backend which allows nulls. When I pull the data using a remote view, the remote view does not indicate that fields have null values. Specifically, if I test a field (which is known to be null on the backend) with ISNULL( fielda), the return value is always .F., even though the value is null. In fact, if I change the backend to NOT ALLOW NULLS, I get the same behavior.

How do I know if it is null or not if ISNULL( fieldname ) ALWAYS returns .F. on remote view fields?

Note: I am not interested in NVL() or SETNULLSDISPLAY. I can write a loop that checks for null prior to sending to the backend, BUT, if ISNULL does not properly report on remote views it wouldn't work anyway. Moreover, these seems very inefficient and a hack. I should be able to TABLEUPDATE and go, and if I desire nulls, I should be able to use them.