I am working on a Windows server and access Oracle databases using the Oracle ODBC driver. I have Oracle ODBC connections that work fine on this machine.

However I want to add a new connection, and when testing it I get the error 

Unable to connect SQL State=S1000 [Oracle][ODBC][Ora] ORA-12170: TNS: Connect timeout occurred

I presume, though I am no DBA, that this has something to do with my TNS Service Name not being in TNSNAMES.ORA which points oracle toward the right server, port, etc.

However I cannot find TNSNAMES.ORA

I have an ORACLE_HOME environment variable, but it is empty.

Where can I find this file or otherwise configure my TNS names?

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3 Answers

tnsnames.ora is located in the ORACLE_HOME\network\admin directory on Windows. Oracle home path is usually C:\app\oracle_account\product\12.1.0\dbhome_1 in windows.

How to find 'TNSNAMES.ORA' on Windows

Step 1) Please check if Oracle has been installed on your system. On Cmd, Type 'sql plus' enter image description here

  1. Then Control Panel -> Advanced System Settings ->

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3)On the 'Advanced' tab, select 'Environment Variables' Then check 'Oracle ' or 'TNS_ADMIN' on System Variables.

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  1. Here, on 'TNS_ADMIN' will get the path for TNS file

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The path to the tns file can be listed in machine.config too.

<oracle.manageddataaccess.client> <version number="4.121.2.0"> <settings> <setting name="TNS_ADMIN" value="C:\app\client\...\product\12.1.0\client\network\admin"/> </settings> </version> </oracle.manageddataaccess.client>
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