Is a Type-4 JDBC driver superior than a Type-3 driver?
A Type-4 driver communicates directly to the database server using the database specific network protocol. It eliminated the middleware server used by a Type-3 driver. Thus, in terms of network architecture and performance, a Type-4 driver is more efficient and faster than a Type-3 driver. However, in the following aspects, a Type-3 driver is more favorable: (a) The database network protocol (e.g. SQL*Net, TDS, etc.) usually is much more complex than one that is design just for a Type-3 driver to communicate with the middleware server. Therefore, the size of a Type-4 driver is almost always bigger than a Type-3 driver, making the latter more efficient during download. (b) Many 2-tier database systems, like MS Access, dBase, FoxPro, Paradox, etc., do not have a network protocol. Therefore, it is not possible to create a Type-4 driver for these databases. Type-3 is the only choice. (c) It is not possible to use one Type-4 JDBC driver to access two incompatible database systems (i.e. hete
