Thanks Sambavan,

Let me tell you that, earlier I had a client and was able to connect to all the boxes. Later, I installed a 8iEE on my NT and now I have both client and server.

so:

1) Can't I have both server and client on the same machine.
2).When trying to reach other boxes through sqlplus, which tnsnames .ora does it check... (Client\network\admin\tnsnames.ora or
(ser\.....\tnsnames.ora)

Please clarify.

Badrinath