As the creator of the world's leading database product, Oracle has led the way in implementing distributed database connectivity.
The purpose of this module is to describe how.
The lessons in this module examine the evolution of Oracle distributed networking and look at the basic features of the main Oracle network tools. These include:

1. Network protocols: We will look at basic computer protocols such as TCP/IP and SPX, and how Oracle enables inter-protocol communications.
2. Oracle topology solution: We will look in general terms at Oracle's topology solution and how the Oracle tools fit together.
3. Oracle Transparent Network Substrate model: This involves a technical overview of TNS and a description of the communication layers.
4. SQL*Net version 1: Here I will describe the basic features of SQL*Net version 1 and discuss why this tool is still important to Oracle.
5. SQL*Net version 2: We will look at the new features (and bug fixes) of SQL*Net version 2.
6. Net8: We will look at this state-of-the-art Oracle networking tool, its functions and features.

In addition, we will take a technical look at the internal features of each tool and lay the foundation for the detailed information later in this series.

In general terms, Net8 is a set of software tools that enable remote databases to communicate as if they were local to the client. Users initiate a request by specifying a "service name" that is parsed by Oracle to get all the information required to connect to the remote database. There are three things that are required to connect to a remote database. The first is the communications protocol (most systems use TCP/IP). The second is the IP address of the remote computer. The third is the name of the Oracle database that resides on the remote host.
Let us begin with a non-technical overview of the history of Oracle networking. An understanding of the evolution of Oracle networking is essential to understanding how Net8 is constructed.