For development purposes and small applications I prefer using Oracle Database 10g Express Edition instead of the heavyweight Oracle Database 10g / 11g Enterprise. It can be installed and run for just 2-3 minutes but it has a small problem: by default the TNS Listener listens for connections on port 1521 from the local machine only and thus remote clients can not connect. A quick fix for this issue is to edit the LISTENER.ORA file located typically in here:

C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\10.2.0\server\NETWORK\ADMIN

You should change the socket bind address to 0.0.0.0. The LISTENER configuration should look like this:

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC_FOR_XE))
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 0.0.0.0)(PORT = 1521))
    )
  )