Max Sessions

We are using Oracle 8i with max sessions set at 200. The number

of users are 100. Quiet frequently the problem of max

sessions reached is encountered and we are forced to kill the

sessions. Please let me know how i can increase the sessions

without shutting down the database.

Thanks in advance.

You can not increase the SESSION parameter without bouncing the DB.

On the other hand you might want to add the following line in your sqlnet.ora so that dead sessions get disconnected (after 5 minutes in that case):
SQLNET.EXPIRE_TIME = 5

Increase processes parameter