I don't have experience with Oracle on XP, but on W2K you can connect / as sysdba without a listener, but the service needs to be started - either with oradim or with net start. The ORA-12560 error points to the service not being started. At 08:25 AM 9/26/2004, rjamya wrote: >Based on my experience with running Oracle in XP-Pro (for training >purpose only) I can attest that you can't do a 'connect / as sysdba' >without listener and the service running. > >But if I am wrong, it isn't my fault ... it is the wrong OS. >Raj Regards Wolfgang Breitling Centrex Consulting Corporation www.centrexcc.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l