connect to oracle without service name

I think there are 2 separate issues here: 1. how to avoid explicitly providing a service name by the client app. & 2. how to provide a mechanism for SQLNet to resolve the service name.

1. You can avoid supplying a service name if the client is running on Windows 95 or NT -- simply define a Reigistry entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Oracle named "LOCAL" whose value will then be used as the default service name.
2. If you are not willing or able to use Oracle Names then the only alternative to placing a TNSNAMES.ORA on every client machine that I am aware of is to put a common TNSNAMES.ORA out on some shared server & create a Registry entry on each client with name "TNS_ADMIN" whose value is the UNC of the folder that holds the shared file.

Good luck
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Vincent Ventrone    |  The MITRE Corp.
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