DevOps, CI/CD and Automation

Please help, here is my situation..
My VB / ASP application running MDAC 2.1 & Oracle 8.07 runs
perfect. All the database connections are made through the VB
module

I upgraded to MDAC 2.6 SP1 and Oracle 8.17 (Oracle 8i), followed
all the connection procedures including setting up the 8.1.7
client on the webserver etc.The connection works fine but the
application just bombs out. In order to isolate the problem to
Oracle 8.1.7, I tried connecting to the older app (on Oracle
8.07) using MDAC 2.6, everything works fine. It is only MDAC 2.6
and Oracle 8.1.7 that seems to be the problem. The only
difference between the two apps is the database name and
password (in the connection string)

I am using OLEDB connection strings.
Connection string : Provider="MSDAORA.1; Provider=msdaora;" & _
"Data Source=XXXDBNAME;" & _
"User Id=YYY;" & _
"Password=ZZZ;"

Do you think I will be better off using ODBC instead of OLEDB ?
Does Oracle 8.1.7 require an actual ODBC DSN to be setup on the
IIS server ??

Does anyone know of any conflicts with MDAC 2.6 SP1 and Oracle
8.1.7..

Thanks