I once had this and now can't find it. I know that you can connect = through a db link using the entire tns connect string for the link. I = don't remember if it had to be predefined or not. I was troubleshooting = a link at the time and stumbled across the syntax but now can't find it. = I've been having trouble with a link being unavailable the first time = its is used after the db has been down. I am thinking that I want to = either create it at run time or just use the entire connect string in a = script. Can anyone share some examples or the syntax for this? =20 Don Freeman Database Administrator 1 Pennsylvania Dept of Health Bureau of Information Technology 717-783-8095 Ext 337 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l