title: Java JDBC - How to connect to Oracle using tnsnames.ora
body: <p><code>tnsnames.ora</code> file contains the <code>Databases</code> and the their description (<code>host</code> + <code>port</code>).</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Is it possible to establish a connection relying on the file mentioned above? (Say by providing only the DB name):</p></li>
  <li><p>In order to find this file, I have to know the default oracle home I need to check in the windows registry for <code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Oracle</code> and then to have all the <code>KEY_XXX</code> files and then check which one appears first on the <code>%PATH%</code>. Is there a way to automatically find this file on the client computer?</p></li>
  </ul>