| This book was written with Oracle8 i in mind. For those of you who keep track of release numbers , that means the focus is on the 8.1.5, 8.1.6, and 8.1.7 releases of Oracle and Net8. This is not to say that we completely ignored Oracle8. Wherever possible, we point out differences between the Oracle8 and Oracle8 i implementations of Net8. Almost all the examples in this book were derived from Windows NT and Linux environments, but do note that Net8 is not a platform-specific technology. Net8's configuration and functionality are remarkably consistent across different hardware and software platforms. Some of the information in this book will be applicable to earlier releases of Oracle, and we expect that almost all of it will apply to subsequent releases for some time to come. The basic architecture of Net8 was set in place several years ago when Oracle8 was released, and it has not changed significantly since then. Almost everything you read in the first few chapters of this book about client configuration, basic server configuration, and multi-threaded server configuration is applicable for both Oracle8 and Oracle8 i . Much of it is even applicable to SQL*Netthe predecessor to Net8 that shipped with Oracle7. With two Net8 componentsOracle Names and Connection Managerthe version issue is a bit more problematic . Oracle Names, in particular, has morphed significantly with each new release of Net8. (In fact, Oracle Names has changed so much over the years that we wonder if Oracle ever had a clear design for the product.) Consequently, in this book, coverage of Oracle Names and Connection Manager is very focused on the 8.1.x releases. | 
