I am building a box with Windows XP with some applications. One application requires connection to an Oracle database on remote. I have installed OracleXEClient.exe from Oracle download. The installation does install "Oracle Provider for OLE DB" driver.
My problem is that I still cannot make connections to the remote Oracle db. The test I have done is to create a UDL file with Oracle provider OLE DB connection. The error message is:
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Microsoft Data Link Error
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Test connection failed because of an error in initializing provider. ORA-12154:
TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified
I think I may miss TNSNAMEC.ora in the box. I can find this file from another box where Oracle connection works fine. I am not sure what package I should install (from Oracle) so that the default TNSNAEMES.ora will be installed with related files and setup path for accessing the TNS file?
Not sure if I can just copy the TNSNAMES.ora and add the dir to environment PATH, manually?
Best Answer
Oracle XE client does not have a tnsnames.ora.
To connect using the odbc use the instructions on this page
or, as Gary said, c:>sqlplus /nolog
SQL> connect user/pwd@127.0.0.1:1521/xe should work as well.