Re: ODBC & VPN

hdjulie_at_remove.spam.cox.net said...
> Can someone point me to a reference on what is needed to set up an ODBC
> connection to a remote database after a VPN is run? I have the ODBC drivers
> & the tnsnames.ora file but I think that I need SQL*Net though I'm not
> positive.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Julie
>

I think I'm missing something here, but let me take a stab at what I think you just asked. Are you using VPN to connect from home to your PC at work ... or some other similar situation? If true, the target of your VPN connection is your "client" PC.

So let's assume you have this scenario:

  homePC -> vpn -> workPC -> odbc -> oracle

You need to install Oracle Client software on your workPC (which will also install SQL*Net, or Net8, or whatever Oracle calls it these days). You need a working tnsnames.ora file on your workPC. You need to setup an ODBC connection (DSN) on your workPC that knows how to talk to Oracle (both Microsoft and Oracle provide such a beast). These odbc products know how to communicate with Net8 in the background; you don't have to know any of the details of how (thankfully!).

Now you sit down at your homePC and fire up VPN and log into your workPC. You start your odbc-aware app on your workPC (thru the often slow VPN tunnel) and log into Oracle. If you're at your workPC, you can forget about VPN entirely.

-- 
/Karsten
DBA > retired > DBA