Hi List, again a beginners question :-( I installed Oracle 10g sucefully and also my cman started on the database host. As I located the database behind a firewall I though about using cman to connect my clients. tnsping works like a charm, Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = eva.domain.de)(PORT = 1630))) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = red.domain.de))) OK (10 msec) but sqlplus does complains ERROR: ORA-12514: TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in connect descriptor As far as I understood the documentation I only need to install cman on my db host and configure the client to use port 1630. Or have I missed a small detail??? Any help would be appreciated. Mat -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l