Actually, this is the question:

$ sqlplus system/sysdev@dev

SQL*Plus: Release 8.1.7.0.0 - Production on Mon Feb 10 22:10:56 2003

(c) Copyright 2000 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle8i Release 8.1.7.4.0 - Production
JServer Release 8.1.7.4.0 - Production

SQL> select name from v$database;

NAME
---------
DEV

SQL> create public database link ENKL.WORLD connect to SYSTEM identified by password using 'ENKLAV';

Database link created.

SQL> select name from v$database@enkl;
select name from v$database@enkl
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02068: following severe error from ENKL
ORA-24365: error in character conversion


SQL>

@enkl is a db link to 9.2.0.2 database.

The best part is: when I tryed to do the same from 9i it silently killed listener on 8i database. Does anybody have a clue what is this all about? Brief search on Metalink gave no results...
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NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8 on all instances.

8i was created as UTF8/UTF8, 9.2 was created as AL32UTF8/UTF8