Which TNSNames.ORA to use?

Hi,

I am using Oracle OLE (in-process server) with VisualBasic 5 to work with an Oracle database. On the logon screen I am presenting the operator a combo box containing a list of all database names found in the TNSNames.ORA file. I locate the TNSNames.ORA using the Windows System Registry to obtain the ORACLE_HOME entry for the current machine. I get C:\ORANT which I append \network\admin\tnsnames.ora.

This works great...I read through this file and put all the names in the combo box and all worked as expected. I have since learned that Oracle 8.0 creates a directory path of C:\ORANT\NET80\ADMIN which contains yet another TNSNames.ORA file. Some machines may have multiple TNSNames.ORA files.

How does the Oracle OLE (in-process) server determine which one to use? I want to use the same criteria so that the list that I provide is complete and valid according to the in-process server. It does no good to read them all and create a composite list since the in-process server is going to focus on one of these files as the current valid list.

Any ideas or information concerning Oracles use of these files will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jerry

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