What is ADO.NET?

ADO.NET is a part of the Microsoft .NET Framework. This framework provides the set of classes that deal with data communication between various layers of the software architecture and the database. It provides a continious access to different data source types such as SQL Server versions 7, 2000, 2005. It also provides connectivity options to data sources through OLE DB and XML. Connectivity may be established with other databases like Oracle, MySQL etc. as well.

ADO.NET has the ability to separate data access mechanisms, data manipulation mechanisms and data connectivity mechanisms.

ADO.NET introduces along with it the disconnected architecture. In a disconncted architecture, data may be stored in a DataSet. It contains providers for connecting to databases, commands for execution and retrieval of results.

The classes for ADO.NET are stored in the DLL System.Data.dll.