The Network Adapter could not establish the connection when connecting with Oracle DB

Question

When trying to connect with a remote Oracle database via JDBC I receive the following exception:

java.sql.SQLRecoverableException: IO-fout: The Network Adapter could not establish the connection
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.logon(T4CConnection.java:419)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.PhysicalConnection.<init>(PhysicalConnection.java:536)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CConnection.<init>(T4CConnection.java:228)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CDriverExtension.getConnection(T4CDriverExtension.java:32)
at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver.connect(OracleDriver.java:521)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:322)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:358)

The following is my set-up:

Database: Oracle 10g Release 2 Standard Edition

JDBC library: ojdbc6.jar
JDBC driver: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
JDBC URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@9.2.2.2:1521:ORCL where ORCL is database's SID
JDBC User/pwd: Correct username / password

Strange about this problem is that the connection works just fine when I work from work. When I try to connect however from home via an AT&T VPN connection, it doesn't work.

I have confirmed that I can reach the IP address and have also telnetted the ip on port 1521, which works just fine. Connecting to the datasource from a local WebLogic Application Server also works alright. Furthermore, when trying to connect to the database via sqldeveloper I can also reach the database.

I need to reach the database however from a standalone application (for testing purposes). Does anyone have an idea why this problem occurs? And whether there are alternatives for connecting to a remote Oracle Database, alternatives which sqldeveloper and weblogic perhaps use?

Here's an excerpt of the code attempting to connect with the database:

public static void main(String args[]) throws ClassNotFoundException, SQLException {
    Class.forName("oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver");
    Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@9.2.2.2:1521:ORCL", "user", "pwd");
}

Answer 1

When a client connects to an Oracle server, it first connnects to the Oracle listener service. It often redirects the client to another port. So the client has to open another connection on a different port, which is blocked by the firewall.

So you might in fact have encountered a firewall problem due to Oracle port redirection. It should be possible to diagnose it with a network monitor on the client machine or with the firewall management software on the firewall.

Answer 2

If it is on a Linux box, I would suggest you add the database IP name and IP resolution to the /etc/hosts.

I have the same error and when we do the above, it works fine.

Answer 3

Take a look at this post on Java Ranch:

http://www.coderanch.com/t/300287/JDBC/java/Io-Exception-Network-Adapter-could

"The solution for my "Io exception: The Network Adapter could not establish the connection" exception was to replace the IP of the database server to the DNS name."