Visual Basic version offers an additional option that can be used with DAO to access remote database engines: ODBCDirect. This DAO option permits your application to choose the database engine and interface used by DAO. Basically, you have two choices:
Basically, ODBCDirect maps each of the Data Access Objects to an equivalent Remote Data Object. While not all of the RDO functionality is implemented with ODBCDirect, this approach permits you to leverage existing DAO-based applications using a familiar object model when accessing remote database systems.
For More Information Information about ODBCDirect’s relationship to RDO is also discussed throughout "Using Remote Data Objects and the Remote Data Control."