2009/02/06

HOWTO: Connect to Oracle 11g on Windows Vista

After installing 11g on Windows Vista, everything works fine. The listener is up, I can connect with SQL*Plus and misc case tools, etc.

However, no other Windows box on the same network segment (and in the same Workgroup) can access the instance on Vista.

Even a simple ping from a nearby XP box fails with "request timed out."

Google searches for things like "unable to ping vista from xp", etc. yielded the usual "check these" suspects:
  • Workgroup name is the same
  • Simple file sharing is on
  • Network discovery is on
  • Network is Private
All check out on both boxes for me.  I even have both Windows Firewalls disabled, and neither computer has McAfee or Norton, so that's not it.

Finally after 2 days or trying, I figure it's time to do a Crazy Ivan. This is Microsoft we're dealing with... so, I do something crazy; I turn on the Windows Firewall on Vista.  I then clicked over to the second tab on the Firewall dialog and looked thru the checklists.

Do you know what I noticed?  The "File and Printer Sharing" checkbox isn't checked. (Thanks Microsoft for letting me enable file sharing in the Network and Sharing Center and not telling me it was off in the firewall!)

So, [click], I enable that sucker.  Then, since I was already here, I created a new rule (the "Add port..." button) for port 1522:



Now it's back to the XP box again... and VOILA! the ping starts working.  I can even ping the Vista box by it's Windows name (that failed before).  More importantly, I can connect to the ORCL database on vista from XP now!

So, I ~200,000 results in Google for "unable to ping Vista from XP" and it's as simple as a checkbox or two.  This is a newer Vista install, so it appears that this checkbox is off by default, couple that with the inability of Vista to warn you when you enable file sharing, and I can see why almost a quarter million people are going "WTF?!"