Attempting to connect to Oracle error...

[Jim OFlaherty]

I was attempting to connect to an Oracle instance using the
classes12.zip Oracle thin driver using SQuirrel 1.1final1
[http://squirrelsql.org]. I kept receiving the following Java
Exception:
java.sql.SQLException: Protocol violation
at oracle.jdbc.dbaccess.DBError.check_error(DBError.java:639)
at oracle.jdbc.ttc7.O3log.receive2nd(O3log.java:529)
at oracle.jdbc.ttc7.TTC7Protocol.logon(TTC7Protocol.java:217)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleConnection.<init>(OracleConnection.java:156)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.getConnectionInstance(OracleDriver.java:231)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:208)
at net.sourceforge.squirrel_sql.fw.sql.SQLDriverManager.getConnection(SQLDriverManager.java:99)
at net.sourceforge.squirrel_sql.client.mainframe.action.OpenConnectionCommand.execute(OpenConnectionCommand.java:112)
at net.sourceforge.squirrel_sql.client.mainframe.action.ConnectToAliasCommand$SheetHandler.run(ConnectToAliasCommand.java:345)
at net.sourceforge.squirrel_sql.fw.util.TaskExecuter.run(TaskExecuter.java:65)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:536)

SQuirreL was successfully connecting to other Oracle instances, just
not this particular one. I work for a large organization with
multiple Oracle servers. Additionally, the company has just merged
with another company. And it is the other company's server that I am
unable to successfully connect to.

After going through a number of other tangents (network issues, jdbc
configuration details, etc.), I decided to download the classes12.zip
file from Oracle again just in case there was some difference from the
one I already had.

Once the download completed, I checked the file dates within
classes12.zip and their dates were all 2001/Mar/20. Then I went to
the "old" classes12.zip I was currently using in my project and the
file dates within were 1999/Jun/14. Surprise!!!

I did a quick reconfigure of SQuirreL to use the "new" classes12.zip
and was able to connect to the "problem" DB. Apparently there was
some sort of update since I had last dl'ed classes12.zip from Oracle.

Uh...same bloody file name, "classes12.zip", different versions. WTF?

I am confused why Oracle would choose to name the zip the same name
and not increment it when they change it. Grrr! It sure makes it
difficult to talk about "versions" with their naming convention.

And why doesn't Oracle use the industry standard .jar format and
naming convention? Their being "rogue" makes this even more confusing
and frustrating.

Hope you find my travails useful.

Jim