I'm having a problem connecting to Oracle as well. I'm using a connection string of the following format (From the Microsoft Website) "Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=serverName;User ID=MyUserID; Password=MyPassword;" All I get is a messagebox that says "Failed to load database information." The error comes up immediately and our database connection is quite slow, so I don't think it's even attempting to connect. I have been able to connect to a MySql Database with a similar connection string with no problems, so I know the app is working. I would appreciate any help anyone could offer. thanks