strange sqlplus and oracle connection issues

Windows Server 2003
Oracle Standard 10.2.0.1

Development use. No support. So no patches... can't do anything about it. I have an enterprise edition installed with a newer patch set on another server, but i have not moved data over to it yet. They build stuff for other people and the customers have the production support, etc...

1. I am trying to describe tables and it hangs on the describe
2. I try to describe a large 10gb table and i get an "end of file communication" and i lose connection
3. I try to query this 10gb table which I was able to do 3 days ago and get the first 5 rows and it hangs and runs for 1 hour before I kill it. The table should not be fragmented. I have not touched it since the last time I looked at it
4. I can get the describe to work on #1 if i run it directly from the server.

any idea where I can look on this?

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