Don't forget to mention that you can pass the data back from the component to the calling application. Example: If you want to return a cursor from a DLL, you have to convert it to an ADO recordset first.

>>Did I hear you correctly in that the data open by a
>>DLL is not availble outside the DLL?
>
>Yep. This would sort of defeat the purpose of COM objects: cross platform compatibility. The information and data accessed and created by a COM object are available through it's published interface only. That is, it's propreties and methods.