Discovering Oracle Names servers causes the Net8 Assistant to search the network and look for all the Oracle Names server in this region. It then creates a list of these Oracle Names server in order of how quickly they responded to the search. From that point on, when a network connection request is issued by the user, names servers are contacted to provide the information to resolve the connection in the order they appear on the list. This is an alternative to using Preferred Names Servers. Preferred Names Servers lists are created by you, while using the discovery option creates a list generated by Net8.

To discover Oracle Names servers:

Choose Discover Oracle Names Servers from the Tools menu.

This produces an SDNS.ORA file in $ORACLE_HOME/network/names on UNIX and ORACLE_ HOME\network\names on Windows platforms. This file contains the names of the Oracle Names server(s). This file is read to find the addresses of Oracle Names servers.

If a Names Server responds, the Net8 Assistant will display icons of all available Names Servers in the tree directory under the Oracle Names Server folder.

If an Oracle Names Server does not respond, and if you know the network address of a particular Oracle Names Server, a dialog box will prompt you for that address. The address must be entered using the following syntax (variable within angled brackets <> and in italic):

(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=Protocol Name)(HOST=Hostname)(PORT=PortNumber))