I'm looking to jump into the brave new (to me) world of tools to make my Oracle life easier, and I'd appreciate a little guidance. Is Toad generally preferred over TOra, or vice versa? I know they are both owned by Quest now, but it looks like it hasn't been long enough for them to make their mark on TOra in a significant way. Are there other tools I should look at? I wear many hats, both DBA and software developer, so I'm interested in making pretty much any Oracle-related task easier/faster/better. We run Linux servers but I have Mac OS X on my desk. We currently do not have any ports open for the listener; all Oracle access originates from the server it's running on, and for security reasons I'd like to keep it that way if possible. So is it at all practical to install one or more tools on the server and run them locally via X11, or is that slower than the proverbial molasses? I'm sharing a full T1 with one other person so bandwidth isn't an issue (we run a home office out in the boonies and this was the only practical means of getting broadband out here). Oh, in case it matters we are still running Oracle 8.1.7.4 (yes, I know I need to upgrade :). Thanks in advance for any advice, janine ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------