Re: Newbie question about SQL*Net

>I was wondering whether SQL*Net was the *only* way to access Oracle ?
>Are there any (cheaper) third party tools that will let a client query
>an Oracle DB? We're looking at a number of end-user ...

SQL*Net is not the only way to access an Oracle database across a net, but it is (as far as I know) the only way for two Oracle processes in different instances to communicate. If you simply want to provide remote SQL access, you could look at middleware products like SEQUELink (unsure of the spelling -- but the vendor is TechGnosis). This product will simply deliver a query from a client to a server over any supported transport protocol (like TCP/IP). There are no doubt other products that do something similar. If all you need is to remotely access an Oracle db then SQL*Net is probably not the right product at all (for one thing, it requires an Oracle instance of some sort on the local machine even all it has to do is support SQL*Net.)

Hope this helps.

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