Connector/Net is a managed data provider for the MySQL database system. It is based entirely off ADO.Net interfaces and provides all the required classes and types needed to interface to MySQL and develop both winform and webform MySQL applications.
With Connector/Net, you can write applications that leverage the complete power of MySQL including transactions, prepared statements, and stored procedures. There is full support for executing batch insert statements using the LOAD DATA LOCAL syntax as well as full support for parameterized queries. The connector also includes a connection pooling mechanism that allows for much faster connection times when being used in a heavy load situation.
Connector/Net can work with MySQL over several different kinds of connections. On Windows platforms (.NET), connections can be made over TCP/IP, named pipes, and shared memory. On non-Windows platforms (using Mono), connections can use TCP/IP and Unix sockets. Future versions of Connector/Net will enable use of the embedded server as a transport.
The connector team has intentionally modelled Connector/Net after the providers found in the System.Data namespace to provide the easiest transition possible from those database systems to MySQL.