Running Bear, you have gone off on a false trail with namesctl & register - they are for configuring a names server. You sound like you should be trying to set up local naming with tnsnames.ora - the simplest option.

I strongly recommend NOT to use "Net8 Configuration Assistant" use the "Net8 Assistant" instead - you can see what you are doing. If you can't get anywhere with that, post the tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora from your server.