I want to know if the JDBC DBC bridge can be used to access a Database on a remote machine. If it can be done, what do I specify in the URL for the DriverManager.getConection() method.
Yes, that works. In the URL you just provide the name of the ODBC data source. That name is set up on your machine in the ODBC control panel; simply point it to a remote data source This works on Windows only, but since Access is Windows-only as well, that may not be a big deal. There's an FAQ here.
I found out a solution to the problem. My MS Access DB is going to be on a Shared drive on my network. So in order to access the DB remotely using the JDBC: ODBC bridge, I need to pass this URL into the getConnection() method : con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc dbc river={MicroSoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=C:/data/Access/test1.mdb","dba","sql");
The other way to work around with the problem is to use the RmiJdbc bridge(Type 3 driver) or use the Jackcess Library which is more powerful and portable. But as I am building a small application where the DB server may not be moved, I would be using the JDBC: ODBC bridge itself.