Is there an adodb.dll replacement?

I am working on an ancient project which has a adodb.dll COM dependency. It appears that the DLL is missing in the GAC on our build and runtime servers, and the only way to get it is installing visual studio (or so google tells me) - which we cannot do due to licensing restrictions.

So my question is:

1. Is there a way I can get this DLL on the machine legally without copying it off another machine's GAC? If the answer is no, then:

2. When i remove this COM dependency from my application, the project builds fine but throws the below runtime error when trying to talk to SQL server. Odd error for a missing interop, but it goes away when I add the dependency back.

   System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): The network path was not found
   

   Is there a redistributable replacement (perhaps one included in the .Net framework) for this DLL?

This is a C# windows application and I am on framework 4.0. Please let me know if any information is required to answer my question.

Edit: Rewriting the application with ADO.Net is the obvious answer, but due to many reasons, that is my last resort, so I'm looking for alternatives. Thanks for understanding!

Many thanks!