I would certainly say it should. The SQL*Net protocol it uses is essentially unchanged. Here's an example of me connecting an Oracle 9 to an Oracle 10 server.
oracle@cammi:~$ sqlplus "urs/urs@THANOS_URS"
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.8.0 - Production on Thu Jun 25 05:55:57 2009
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
According to the guys at "http://www.experts-exchange.com/"...
11 can talk to 11,10,9
10 can talk to 11,10,9,8
9 can talk to 11,10,9,8,7
8 can talk to 10,9,8,7
7 can talk to 9,8,7
According to Oracle forums, this is defined in Metalink DocID 207303.1, which provides a comprehensive client/ server compatibility matrix. I don't have Metalink access sadly, so I can't confirm this.
If you are having connection troubles, I suggest you start with the Oracle alert log on your server machine. To find the location of your oracle alert log:
SQL> select value from v$parameter where name = 'background_dump_dest';
Also, you'll probably get something useful out of enabling listener tracing:
$ lsnrctl
LSNRCTL> set trc_level ADMIN
The trace file on my Solaris Oracle 10 install is found in:
$ORACLE_HOME/network/trace/listener.trc
You can view it directly or use the trcasst program to "format" it. Note that ALL of this is on the server, not your client side.
Hope this helps.
Best Answer
once upon a time there was a 10.2.4.0 download at http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle10g/htdocs/10204macsoft_x86-64.html . Some people got it to work with the help of this blog post , but I never got it to work.
Oracle says,
So, the long answer is - it's possible to get it going but truly doubtful that it's worth your effort.