ADO stands for ActiveX Data Objects. It is a programming model for a universal data-access interface called OLE DB.  OLE DB is a technology that is intended to be used to connect to any type of data (including text data, spreadsheet data, database data, XML data and so on).

The common way to access a database from inside an ASP page is to:

• Create an ADO connection to a database

• Open the database connection

• Create an ADO recordset

• Open the recordset

• Extract the data you need from the recordset

• Close the recordset

• Close the connection