I have to connect to a Oracle server on the network using a .NET / C# (Winform) application. I am trying to use System.Data.OracleClient but in vain.

Here are the details I can possibly think of (that might help someone reading this question):

Platform: Visual Studio 2005 / .NET 2.0 with C# on Windows Vista Home Premium

Library: System.Data.OracleClient

Server: Oracle 11g (located on the same LAN)

Please note that I don't have Oracle installed locally and I have hunted every discussion forum possible for help - but most of them assume local Oracle installation!

Here is my connection string:

"User Id=TSUSER;Password=ts12TS;Data Source=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=MyServerIP)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=ORCL)));"

And I get this error:

OCIEnvCreate failed with return code -1 but error message text was not available.

Stack trace:

at System.Data.OracleClient.OciHandle..ctor(OciHandle parentHandle, HTYPE handleType, MODE ocimode, HANDLEFLAG handleflags) at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleInternalConnection.OpenOnLocalTransaction(String userName, String password, String serverName, Boolean integratedSecurity, Boolean unicode, Boolean omitOracleConnectionName) at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleInternalConnection..ctor(OracleConnectionString connectionOptions) at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningObject) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreatePooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnectionOptions options) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.CreateObject(DbConnection owningObject) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.UserCreateRequest(DbConnection owningObject) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection) at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory) at System.Data.OracleClient.OracleConnection.Open() at DGKit.Util.DataUtil.Generate() in D:\SVNRoot\sandbox\DGDev\Util\DataUtil.cs:line 68