In the past, when I've been confused about where my system was getting a particular connect string definition, I've found it can be useful to do something like: truss tnsping problem_connect_string 2>&1 | grep tnsnames And this will give the order that things are searched, and which was the first to succeed. -Mark > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of=20 > Mercadante, Thomas F > A slight correction: >=20 > The search order is=20 > .5 A stray tnsnames.ora file somewhere directly in your path. = <=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > 1. TNS_ADMIN > 2. The Global Configuration Directory (e.g. /etc or /var/opt/oracle)=20 > 3. Then $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l