Multiple Oracle connections

Hi, I am hoping that someone can help diagnose this issue. I am able to successfully connect to and query a remote Oracle 9.2 database from apache2/php5. However, when I have multiple clients hitting my php scripts, all of which require a connection to the database, problems begin to occur. The first script running gets a connection to the database, start performing queries, etc. While the first connection is running all other pages hang while trying to connect to the database until the first page finishes. I have tried all of the following to no avail: oci_connect, oci_new_connect, and oci_pconnect. The results are always the same, only one connection opens, all others end up waiting. I have found that I can connect to the DB through other methods at the same time (jdbc, sqlplus). Is it possible I have configured something incorrectly or I have the wrong expectations? I could not find anything on the web concerning this issue and I know there must be much higher traffic installations that would have experienced this issue if it was widespread. Any help would be greatly appreciated. -Chris Back