Connect Excel to Oracle - oracle

Question

Can we connect from excel (excel-VBA) to oracle(in a remote server) without
installing oracle client in the client system... I tried all the options
below but it is throwing error as oracle client should be installed.
below is the connectionstring i have used
1)strConnection = "Provider=OraOLEDB.Oracle;Data Source=SourceName;User Id=Username;
Password=password;"
2)strConnection = "Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=SourceName;UserId=Username;
Password=password;"
3)strConnection = "Provider=MSDAORA.1;User ID=Username/password;Data
Source=SourceName;Persist Security Info=False"
4)strConnection = "Driver={Microsoft ODBC for Oracle};SERVER=(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=192.168.2.6)(PORT=1521)
)(CONNECT_DATA (SERVICE_NAME=SERVICEName)));uid=Username;
pwd=password;Uid=Username;Pwd=password;"
5)strConnection = "SERVER=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=192.168.2.6)
(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA =(SERVICE_NAME=SERVICEName)));
uid=Username;pwd=password;"

Answer 1

You need some form of client to connect to an Oracle database, local or remote.
You have two choices:
Install an Oracle SQL*Net client. If your server is Oracle 10g or higher you don't need the full-blown client: you can use the more lightweight Instant Client.
Buy an n-tier ODBC driver which supports generic connectivity. OpenLink is one, there are others.
".can we not connect to the oracle
database with only the Drivers or
providers present in our OS(Windows
XP).."
Think of it this way: the ODBC drivers do not connect to the database, they connect to SQLNet. Then SQLNet connects to the database.
"what is the difference between
Drivers,providers with the client. "
The Oracle provided drivers are better tuned for Oracle than the ones MS provides, but in this context they are the same: both require the presence of an Oracle client to work.