Are you running ORacle 8i Server or Client? Sounds like you don't have the right information in your ORA files (TNSNAMES.ORA and/or SQLNET.ORA, listener.ora)- did you create a sample database or are you trying to connect to a remote db? Is there a DBA working with you? He/She should be able to get you the file information you need for your connectivity. Otherwise try using NetConfig ORacle tool. Check in Drive:\oracle\ora8i\network\admin\ for your ORA files. Also, if you are running a local db, you need to make sure your listener is up. Go to Services and look for a service named something like ORacleOrahomeTNSListener. It needs to be started (note it reads your listener.ora file so that must be there to work). If you are running OracleLite, you need to use LSNRCTL to start/stop it as it does not appear in your services menu. Hope that helps,
Kimberly
