An ASP.NET application must connect to a database through an OLE DB provider. The provider acts as an interpreter that lets an ASP.NET application communicate with a database.

If you want to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server database, you can use the Managed Data Provider for SQL Server that comes with the .NET Framework 1.1 SDK. This provider, which is optimized for SQL Server and is very fast, is installed when you install the SDK.

If you want to connect to a database other than SQL Server, make sure an OLE DB provider for your database is installed on the computer running the .NET Framework. You can obtain an OLE DB provider for Microsoft Access by downloading and installing the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.7 package from the Microsoft website at http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/mdac/downloads/.

You can download OLE DB providers for Oracle databases from the Oracle website at www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/windows/ole_db/index.html. You can also purchase OLE DB providers from third-party vendors.