People could not connect via shared server - hung. So tried stopping the dispatchers and restarting them. I did: alter system shutdown immediate 'D000' ; alter system shutdown immediate 'D001' ; In alert log I see the following. idle dispatcher 'D000' terminated, pid = (13, 1) I do not see d001 stopping. If do a lsnrctl services it still shows d001. If do: ALTER SYSTEM SET DISPATCHERS=''(address=(host=10.20.7.11)(proto =tcp))(dispatchers=2)''; Then lsnrctl services shows d000, d001 and d002. I ended up bouncing the database. I had to do a shutdown abort since shutdown immediate hung - probably due to dispatcher d001 getting stuck. Any ideas on why a dispatcher would get stuck? Jeffrey Beckstrom Database Administrator Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority 1240 W. 6th Street Cleveland, Ohio 44113