title: Specifying where to place Oracle tnsnames.ora and getting ODBC to connect to Oracle database
body: <p>I am trying to configure my ODBC for Oracle. I installed Oracle client. 
  I went to the ODBC Data Source Administrator and clicked Add and selected
  Oracle in OraClient 11g_home. I filled out the DataSource Name, TNS Service Name and UserID. I clicked Test Connection and it gave me the ORA-12154 error. </p>
  
  <p>I realized that I did not specified the TNS_ADMIN path in the registry. Looking at the TNS file, the ODBC connection will look for the tnsnames.ora file for additional information, correct?</p>
  
  <p>So, I googled and found that it states to specified the TNS_ADMIN path to 
  c:\oracle_install_folder\product\11.2.0\client_1\network\admin</p>
  
  <p>I just installed oracle client but not the Administrator install. I checked and did not find the network\admin folder under client_1.</p>
  
  <p>Questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>To get my Oracle ODBC to connect, I need to add TNS_ADMIN to my registry?</li>
  <li>What path to TNS_ADMIN?</li>
  <li>I don't see network\admin folder, do I need to reinstall with Oracle Client and select the Administrator package?</li>
  <li>Where do I copy the tnsnames.ora file to?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks...</p>