There are Four types of JDBC Drivers

Type1 - JDBC-ODBC bridge plus ODBC driver(Bridge):
The JDBC type 1 driver, also known as the JDBC-ODBC bridge, is a database driver
implementation that employs the ODBC driver to connect to the database. The driver
converts JDBC method calls into ODBC function calls. As a result, this kind of driver
 is most appropriate on a corporate network where client installations are not a major
 problem, or for application server code written in Java in a three-tier architecture.

Type 2 - Native-API partly-Java driver(Native):
The JDBC type 2 driver, also known as the Native-API driver, is a database driver
implementation that uses the client-side libraries of the database. The driver converts
JDBC method calls into native calls of the database API.This kind of driver converts
JDBC calls into calls on the client API for Oracle, Sybase, Informix, IBM DB2, or other DBMSs.

Type 3 - JDBC-Net pure Java driver(Middleware):
The JDBC type 3 driver, also known as the Pure Java Driver for Database Middleware, is a
database driver implementation which makes use of a middle tier between the calling
program and the database. The middle-tier (application server) converts JDBC calls
directly or indirectly into the vendor-specific database protocol. This driver translates
JDBC calls into a DBMS-independent net protocol, which is then translated to
a DBMS protocol by a server.

Type 4 - Native-protocol pure Java driver(Pure):
The JDBC type 4 driver, also known as the Direct to Database Pure Java Driver, is a database
driver implementation that converts JDBC calls directly into a vendor-specific database protocol.

This kind of driver converts JDBC calls directly into the network protocol used by DBMSs.
This allows a direct call from the client machine to the DBMS server and is an excellent
solution for intranet access.

So Driver categories 3 and 4 are the preferred way to access databases using the JDBC API.

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