PeteDotCom -> Networking -> Misc -> ODBC ->   What does it stand for? Open data base interconnect. How does it work? ODBC works by allowing you to create a report or gather information from one or more databases. For example your company's sales department uses a btrieve database, your purchasing department uses a oracle database and your payroll department uses a paradox database. With ODBC drivers installed for each of these databases you can generate a report in Microsoft Access with data from the different databases. The beauty ODBC is that your don't even need to know how each of the above systems work.