Oracle Net manages

Oracle Net manages the flow of information from client computers to Oracle servers and forms the foundation of all networked computing in the Oracle environment. Oracle Net provides services that can be divided into five main categories: connectivity, directory services, scalability, security, and accessibility. Connectivity solutions include support for multiple protocols, multiple operating systems, and Java and Internet. Directory services provide an infrastructure to resolve Oracle service names through a centralized naming repository. Scalability solutions include Connection Manager and Oracle Shared Server. Security options include Oracle Advanced Security, which provides an additional layer of security options and robust support for many varieties of firewalls. Accessibility support includes Heterogeneous Services and support for calling external procedures. Oracle Net also provides connectivity to Java stored procedures and URL connections.




The names resolution methods available for clients include hostnaming, Oracle Easy Connect, localnaming, Oracle Internet Directory, and External Naming. Hostnaming, which can only be used if you are using TCP/IP, is mainly used for simple Oracle networks. Oracle Easy Connect is an extension of hostnaming and allows for
the inclusion of additional information such as the hostname and port specification. Localnaming is the most popular of the names resolution methods, and it uses the tnsnames.ora file,
which is typically located on each client, to resolve net service names. The client looks up the net service name in the tnsnames.ora file and uses the resulting connect descriptor information
to connect to the Oracle server. The hostnaming and localnaming methods are configured using
the Oracle Net Manager or Oracle Enterprise Manager. Oracle Internet Directory is a Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)–compliant server that provides for centralized management
of Oracle database connection identifier information. External Naming uses a non-
Oracle facility, such as DNS, to manage and resolve Oracle service names