Windows PC to Oracle w/o SQL*Net?

We have 4-5,000 PC workstations that use a locally written Windows program to logon on to our Central LAN. At peak load, about 100 users per minute are logging on. Data about users and their connections are kept in a database. The logon program accesses and updates information in this database when a user logs on. Currently the database is MS Access, but due to repeated problems with database corruption, we want to convert the database to Oracle.

Our environment: Workstations are Windows for Workgroups (Win 3.11) now and soon will also include Win95 and WinNT workstations. All run TCP/IP over ethernet. Servers are either WinNT or HP-UX with ethernet. SQL*Net is V2. Oracle is 7.1 or greater.

Our problem: Since the logon program is running on the individual workstations, how do we access Oracle without having to buy and install SQL*Net on each workstation? The only thought I had was to use some kind of program to program communication, where the logon program on the workstation would talk to a program (logon server) running on one of our SQL*Net enabled servers (see below). Any thoughts? Does anyone know how to code the program to program connection? Is there some way to access Oracle from the Windows PC WITHOUT having to install SQL*Net on each PC?

Windows PC          NT or Unix Server    Unix Oracle DB Server
------------          ---------------          --------------
|logon pgm |   ?      |logon server | SQL*Net  |Oracle data |


|          |--------->|             |--------->|            |

|          |          |             |          |            |
------------          ---------------          --------------

TIA for any help or ideas.

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