Symptoms
The number of connections opened on SQL Server increases indefinitely if a Microsoft Data Access Objects (DAO) recordset is opened and closed repeatedly when you use DAO version 3.6. This does not happen if you use DAO version 3.51. You may see this behavior if you use sqlpassthrough in which the connection string is specified in the OpenDatabase statement.
Resolution
Use a Querydef to create the connection instead of creating the connection in the OpenDatabase statement.