Instantclient on *nix

Hello,

according to oracle's page the installation and use of the instant client is easy:
1. Download the appropriate Instant Client packages for your platform. All installations REQUIRE the Basic or Basic Lite package. 2. Unzip the packages into a single directory such as "instantclient". 3. Set the library loading path in your environment to the directory in Step 2 ("instantclient"). On many UNIX platforms, LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the appropriate environment variable. On Windows, PATH should be used. 4. Start your application and enjoy.

So, I set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the proper directory. If I start my application I get the following error:
ORA-12162: TNS:net service name is incorrectly specified

The connection settings in my software are (supposed to be) ok. If I point with ORACLE_HOME to the directory of the oracle server (also installed on the same machine), I can connect to the DB-server and use my software without problem. If I understood it correctly, one doesn't need ORACLE_HOME anymore, if one uses the instantclient. But somehow it doesn't work for me. I've tried it on a linux and on a solaris machine. Is there more to do?
Thanks in advance.

Alexander Semke. Received on Wed Jun 13 2007 - 09:03:21 CDT