Connecting to Oracle using a network directory/registry

[cjohnson6]

I Hope i phrase this question to where it will make sense.
My company recently purchased Oracle 8i (er 8.1.7) and loaded it onto a new Sun Solaris box. The access to this box from a stand alone PC can be accessed through a mapped drive we have created (called S:\). It is through this network drive that we talk to this box.
We then loaded Oracle 8i locally onto a separate PC and we are trying to connect to that network drive using SQL Plus but find that the connection always refers to the TNSNAMES.ORA settings we have in place on the local drive.
We've even tried to manipulate the settings through 'regedit' but it didn't work out.

Has anyone experienced this or know how we can connect to a network drive (via SQL Plus) from a stand alone PC?

Thanks to anyone who responds,
Claude Johnson
claude_johnson@s2systems.com

 

[MikeLacey]

Hi Claude,

There are some things you need to do before you can connect to a remote database over a network.

1 The two machines need to be able to talk to one another on the network. If it's a TCP network they need to be able to ping one another with no bother. Looks like you already have this working if you can map a drive.

2 The correct protocol adaptor needs to be installed on the server (the solaris box in this case). If the network is a TCP/P network you need the TCP protocol adaptor, if it's NetBEUI you need the NetBEUI adaptor and so on.

3 A process called The Listener needs to be set up on the server. This waits for incoming requests from things trying to connect to the database.

Once you've got this far you can test it without needing the PC. Where are you up to? Are there any bits you need specific help with? (it's ok to say "all of it" by the way)
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com