Re: difference between listener.ora and tnsname.

ora Posted: Mar 10, 2005 12:03 AM in response to: sa**** Reply Oracle acts as a Client-Server software. That means you have two main ends, the Client who must somehow get to the server, and the server who must accept connexion requests from clients. When the client attempts to connect to the server, you give him a "Service". The service is mainly 4 info: Host for the server, Protocol and port (the language to speak) ad SID (name of the instance/database). Those 4 infos are usually and by default locates in a tnsnames.ora. This is called: Translation Named Server - errrrrr Service - errrr Ser* On the server side you must have one or more active processes (daemons) who are waiting for the client to attempt a connection. Those services are called Listeners. In most cases only one listener is required. This listener is configured via a listener.ora file. This file includes the process config, mainly: Host for which it listens, protocol and port, list of SID for which the process can establish a connexion. Furthermore, if you're connecting to the database on the server computer, and it's the default database, you don't need to tell where you're going when you're the client. Default Database. You don't even need to have a listener.