Question : Connecting Oracle DB

Is it possible to connect to an Oracle database without odbc driver? I am trying to connect to an Oracle database with either SQL 2000 or VB.net or MS Access.  I googled searched experts-exchange.  Some said yes and some said no.  No clue which one is valid. Help.

Answer : Connecting Oracle DB

The short answer to your question is a definite 'yes'.  You CAN (meaning it is possible) to oracle without an ODBC driver.  This does not mean that you can do all you want to do once connected ( I assume that you are not connecting just for the sake of connecting).

The long answer to your question is I would need to qualify it more in order to make my answer useful and hopefully usefull to you.

I think your question could be: What are the different ways I can connect to an Oracle database from a MS WINDOWS environment (.NET, MS ACCESS, SQL SERVER, etc.) and how can I make the connection useful to me?

Stated this way, the question is very broad in scope.  So I will give you contextual information you need to know, then give you examples you might want to try.

1) Context
# In general you connect from you WINDOWS machine to an Oracle database that seats on a another machine (even if it is the same machine, think of it logically as 2 different machines).  In this configuration your MS WINDOWS machine is called the client.

# For a client machine to connect to an Oracle database machine, the Oracle client software MUST be installed on the client machine - no exception.  The Oracle client software is the only piece of software that knows how to talk to an Oracle database.  This Oracle client software is called Net8 (for the most
rectent versions).  It comes in several forms that you can download for free from the Oracle website:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/oracle10g/htdocs/10201winsoft.html.
The client comes through diverse forms (fat or thin) and there are version compatibility issues (recent clients(10g) cannot connect to older databases (Oracle 7.34).

# To be able to bridge the gap between the client and other softwares (Microsoft stuff) a number of tools have been built, primarily by Microsoft and Oracle.  They are:
  - ODBC driver for Oracle  (Microsoft built one, Oracle built another one: same functions but different proficiency on Oracle stuff or Microsoft stuff.)
  - OLEDB for Oracle (I think each vendor provides a version)
 - .NET data provider for Oracle.
These tools must also be installed on the Client machine.  Each tool is good enough to connect to Oracle, however they are not invoked and configured the same way.

2) Specific cases:
- MS ACCESS.   To connect from MS ACCESS, the ODBC is the most convenient and flexible way.  You can however connect with OLEDB, but you need to write code behind forms.

- SQL SERVER.  You can always use ODBC.   I think you can also use the heterogenous database infrastructure to configure a connection to Oracle through OLEDB

- VB .NET:  You can use ODBC, but for performance and robustness, use .NET provider for Oracle or OLEDB for oracle.  This is all programmatic.

3) Coclusion
You CAN connect without ODBC. It however requires some expertise that is to broad to discribe here.
I hope this helps.