Hi,
Oracle Basic replication (as is your case) IS SUPPORTED with Oracle 8i personal edition:
Check the documentation on difference b/w standard, enterprise and personal editions of oracle 8i.
Distributed
Basic replication
Y
Y
Y
Oracle8i server fully supports bi-directional replication with automated conflict detection and resolution. Supported configurations include a single updatable master site with multiple updatable or read-only snapshot sites.
Try recreating the master group and test the replication. You can still have a different SID name for this to work.
Badrinath
There is always a better way to do the things.