Unable to connect to remote Oracle database from a machine that does not have oracle client

I have a dot net executable (build in Visual Studio 2008) that attempts to connect to remote oracle database from a machine that does not have oracle client installed. The error I am getting is

"ORA-12154 TNS Could not resolve the connect identifier specified"

from what I have read so far I needed to add reference Oracle.DataAccess.dll. Oracle.DataAccess was not available for adding under my VS 2008, so I went ahead and got a copy of MSI package (ODTwithODAC1020221.exe from Oracle site) to add the suggested DLL file (I am not sure if there is compatibility issue between my version of VS/.NET 3.5 SP1 and the download). After I have successfully added the reference, i get the above error.

I can successfully do a TNSPING on a local machine that has oracle client. I have also validated database descriptions from TNSNAMES.ORA file.

Here is the code I am using to connect to oracle:

Imports System.IO
Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Xml.Schema
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Data.Common.DataAdapter
Imports System.Data.Common.DbDataAdapter
Imports System.Net.Mail
Imports System.Threading.Thread
Imports System.Data.OleDb
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Imports System.ServiceProcess
Imports System.Management
Imports System
Imports Oracle.DataAccess
Imports Oracle.DataAccess.Client



Module Module1


    Public Sub Main()

        Dim sql As String
        Dim sql2 As String

           Dim DATABASENAME1 As String = "Data Source=(DESCRIPTION =" _+ " (ADRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST=Server.Host.com)(PORT=1540))" _+ ")" _+ "(CONNECT_DATA = " _+ "(SID=DATABASENAME1)));" _+ "User Id=user;Password=password1;"

             
        Dim conn1 As New OracleConnection()
         conn1.ConnectionString = DATABASENAME1

        '%%%%% Connect to database

        Try
            conn1.Open()
            Console.WriteLine("Connection to Oracle database established!")
            MsgBox("Connection to Oracle database established!")

            Console.WriteLine(" ")


        Catch ex As Exception

            MsgBox("Not Connected" & ex.Message)

            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)
            End
        End Try
END SUB
END MODULE

Any suggestion or direction greatly appreciated.