something wrong with my tns names file
however, i have several oracle installs, including one for 8i
over a year ago we moved our eval database.
when i try to connect to the new one (which is correct in my tnsnames.ora file), i am getting a ORA-12170: TNS:Connect timeout occured.
i have seen this in other products when it was looking at the old tnsnames file. i made sure all locations are now the same. still the issue.
since we are migrating to R12, this will affect our go-live if i can't get the resolved and i can't fix our programs.