OracleConnection intermittant failure, ORA-12638

[EricN]

In an ASP.NET web application, connections to Oracle 9i
often, but not always, fail with Oracle error code ORA-
12638, "The authentication service failed to retrieve the
credentials of a user".

This never occurs when run from VisualStudio.NET(2003).
It almost always occurs when run from a browser (IE 6.0)
on a remote PC. However, if the web app is invoked from
the machine hosting IIS (either from VisualStudio debug
or a browser), then the remote PC can also browse to this
page (at least for a few minutes).

There is no recollection of this problem before our
upgrade from Oracle 8i to 9i about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks for any suggestions. Eric...

 

[Lyndon Hills]

In an ASP.NET web application, connections to Oracle 9i
often, but not always, fail with Oracle error code ORA-
12638, "The authentication service failed to retrieve the
credentials of a user".

This never occurs when run from VisualStudio.NET(2003).
It almost always occurs when run from a browser (IE 6.0)
on a remote PC. However, if the web app is invoked from
the machine hosting IIS (either from VisualStudio debug
or a browser), then the remote PC can also browse to this
page (at least for a few minutes).

There is no recollection of this problem before our
upgrade from Oracle 8i to 9i about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks for any suggestions. Eric...

What is in the sqlnet.ora file on the pc?

Particularly in a line like

sqlnet.authentication_services = (NONE).

That file should be at $ORA_HOME/network/admin btw

 

[EricN]

-----Original Message-----

What is in the sqlnet.ora file on the pc?

Particularly in a line like

sqlnet.authentication_services = (NONE).

That file should be at $ORA_HOME/network/admin btw
.
I found a suggestion on Oracle/Metalink regarding the

same line mentioned in Lyndon's previous post.
The Metalink article recommends useing
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICE=(BEQ,NONE)
I was previously useing:
SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICE=(NTS)

There have been no failures so far since changing this.
Eric...