The first thing you must do is download the Oracle ODBC driver from the Oracle ftp site. Forget about using the Oracle ODBC driver made by Microsoft, that version is extremely buggy (surprise!)

The Oracle 32bit ODBC driver is currently available via anonymous ftp from

    ftp://ftp.oracle.com/pub/www/odbc_o7/win95/2.5.3.1.0b/large/n25310b.exe (for Win95/98)
or
    ftp://ftp.oracle.com/pub/www/odbc_o7/nt_x86/2.5.3.1.0b/large/n25310b.exe (for WinNT)

The 32bit Oracle ODBC Driver is also available off the Oracle Products for Windows 98/NT CD

In addition to this software, you will also need 32-bit SQL*NET for this to work. Unfortunately, you cannot download this from the Oracle ftp site. SQL*NET is available from many Oracle CDs, Developer 2000, Oracle Products for 98/NT & so forth.

Be sure to get the 32bit version of this product. You can tell whether the product is 16 or 32bit from the version of windows the Oracle product is written for.

If the Oracle Product is for Windows, then it is 16bit.
If the Oracle Product is for Windows 95/98/NT, then it is 32bit.

SQL*NET is Oracle's networking protocol, that allows remote clients to connect to an Oracle Database. SQL*NET is a session level protocol in the OSI network model and runs on top of existing transport level protocols suchs as TCP/IP and IPX/SX. Virtually all sites use SQL*NET over TCP/IP.
 
 

Installing ODBC

You are now ready to begin the installation. The file obtained from the ftp site contains the Oracle ODBC driver and is a self-extracting executable. Extract this file (using the -d option for creating subdirectories) on the machine that you want ODBC installed on. This file will extract itself into a large set of files that will be installed using the Oracle Installer Executable (which also should be extracted). Locate the Oracle Installer program (called orainst.exe), start the install, and proceed to install the Oracle ODBC driver.

Once you have finished installing the Oracle ODBC driver, you will now need to install the 32bit SQL*NET drivers onto that same client machine. Insert to CD containing the SQL*NET drivers, and proceed to install that onto the client machine as well. Be sure to check that the client machine has the proper network protocols installed and configured that SQL*NET will be using.

Be sure that SQL*NET is properly installed and configured. As with all SQL*NET configurations, you will need to define a list of Databases that each client can connect to either with a tnsnames.ora file or by defining an Oracle Names Server. Make sure to test database connectivity using tnsping.exe before continuing.

Configuring ODBC

Once SQL*NET is installed and configured, you are ready to configure to ODBC driver. The installation of the Oracle ODBC drivers, should create an ODBC 32 Administrator app in the Windows Control Panel. Locate this icon and start the ODBC Administrator. You should see the following screen:

This is the ODBC Administrative Screen. To add a database, select the following:

    Choose System DSN, then click on the Add->

You should then see the following:

Select the Oracle73 Driver option, then click on Finish. Make sure NOT to select the Microsoft ODBC for Oracle as that driver is awful. You should then see the following screen:

The is the database definition screen. Each database must have a Data Source Name & Connect String.
You are free to call the Data Source Name whatever you want, but the SQL*NET MUST be able to resolve the Connect String either in tnsnames.ora or via Oracle Names. In the above example, we are defining a Data Source of Production that will connect to the database as specified by DB_PROD in either tnsnames.ora or Oracle Names. Click on OK to continue.

Testing the ODBC Connection

At this point, the setup of ODBC is complete. You are now ready to test the ODBC connection.  The install of the Oracle ODBC drivers includes an ODBC Test program. Under most installs, a shortcut for this application should be created under

    Start Menu->Oracle for Windows 95/NT->ODBC Test.

Locate this application and run it. You should see the following screen:

Enter an SQL statement in the top box and click Connect. You will then see the following:

Select the database that you want to connect to and then click OK. You will then be prompted to enter a login & password for the database. After you login, you will return to the previous screen. Click Execute to perform the operation.
 

Once the ODBC test is complete, you are ready to connect using other applications such as Access & Visual Basic. Keep in mind that the ODBC install is for 32bit apps only.