Multiple "databases" in Oracle...from a SQL Server Admin view..HELP

Hello all you Oracle Gurus!

I'm really confused about setting up more than one database in oracle.  I've read multiple posts about "Instances" and "Schemas" and i'm more confused now then ever. Here is what I want to accomplish. I want to set up a box that I can use for testing VB applications against. There are multiple applications that use different databases(tables). In SQL server I just create a new "database" and create an odbc connection that uses that database's tables as its default. How do I accomplish this in Oracle 8.1.7? I've tried creating 2 databases but it seems like the first "Instance" that loads hogs up all the resources and even though I see the second database I can't access it.  I'm sure i'm missing something really simple because I will be the only one accessing the data and I don't care about performance I just care about having different databases on one machine. Please post any friendly advice. My company won't pay for training but I could purchase books if there are any that would help.

Thank you!

T Received on Mon Sep 30 2002 - 08:41:00 CDT