How do i connect to an external mysql database?

Connect to a database with MySQL Workbench on your shared, VPS, or Dedicated hosting account. MySQL Workbench is a free tool you can use to connect to your server databases from your personal computer. MySQL Workbench can be Downloaded for free at the following link:

How do i connect to an external mysql database?

You will want to use the Windows (x86, 64-bit), MSI Installer if you are on Windows. The file we are installing in this tutorial is the mysql-workbench-gpl-5.2.47-win32.msi file.

Once you have downloaded MySQL Workbench, you can install it onto your computer. After you have the program installed, follow the steps below to set up a remote connection.

Don’t have time to read the article? Watch our walk-through video.

Add IP to your Remote MySQL

In order for you to be able to connect to your databases remotely you will need to add your local computer IP address to the Remote MySQL in cPanel. You can get your IP address by going to the following link:

What’s My IP address?

Steps to connect to your database remotely

  1. Open MySQL Workbench.
  2. Click New Connection towards the bottom left of MySQL Workbench.
    How do i connect to an external mysql database?
  3. In the “Set up a New Connection Dialogue” box, Type your Database connection credentials. The credentials will be like the following:

    Connection Name: You can name this whatever you like.
    Connection Method: Standard (TCP/IP).
    Hostname: You can use your domain our your cPanel IP address.
    Port: 3306
    Username: Your cPanel username or the user you created for the database.
    Password: cPanel password or the password for the database user that was created.
    Default Schema: This can be left blank.

    Click Test Connection.

    How do i connect to an external mysql database?

  4. Type your password and click the “Save Password in Vault” check box.Click Ok.

    How do i connect to an external mysql database?

  5. MySQL Workbench should say “Connection parameters are correct“. Click Ok.
    How do i connect to an external mysql database?
  6. Click Ok again to accept the connection settings.
    How do i connect to an external mysql database?
  7. Now under the SQL Development section you will see your connection listed in the Open Connection to Start Querying box. Click your newly created account.
    How do i connect to an external mysql database?

    Now you will see the databases list in the area on the left.

    How do i connect to an external mysql database?

4.2.4 Connecting to the MySQL Server Using Command Options

This section describes use of command-line options to specify how to establish connections to the MySQL server, for clients such as mysql or mysqldump. For information on establishing connections using URI-like connection strings or key-value pairs, for clients such as MySQL Shell, see Section 4.2.5, “Connecting to the Server Using URI-Like Strings or Key-Value Pairs”. For additional information if you are unable to connect, see Section 6.2.22, “Troubleshooting Problems Connecting to MySQL”.

For a client program to connect to the MySQL server, it must use the proper connection parameters, such as the name of the host where the server is running and the user name and password of your MySQL account. Each connection parameter has a default value, but you can override default values as necessary using program options specified either on the command line or in an option file.

The examples here use the mysql client program, but the principles apply to other clients such as mysqldump, mysqladmin, or mysqlshow.

This command invokes mysql without specifying any explicit connection parameters:

mysql

Because there are no parameter options, the default values apply:

  • The default host name is localhost. On Unix, this has a special meaning, as described later.

  • The default user name is ODBC on Windows or your Unix login name on Unix.

  • No password is sent because neither --password nor -p is given.

  • For mysql, the first nonoption argument is taken as the name of the default database. Because there is no such argument, mysql selects no default database.

To specify the host name and user name explicitly, as well as a password, supply appropriate options on the command line. To select a default database, add a database-name argument. Examples:

mysql --host=localhost --user=myname --password=password mydb
mysql -h localhost -u myname -ppassword mydb

For password options, the password value is optional:

  • If you use a --password or -p option and specify a password value, there must be no space between --password= or -p and the password following it.

  • If you use --password or -p but do not specify a password value, the client program prompts you to enter the password. The password is not displayed as you enter it. This is more secure than giving the password on the command line, which might enable other users on your system to see the password line by executing a command such as ps. See Section 6.1.2.1, “End-User Guidelines for Password Security”.

  • To explicitly specify that there is no password and that the client program should not prompt for one, use the --skip-password option.

As just mentioned, including the password value on the command line is a security risk. To avoid this risk, specify the --password or -p option without any following password value:

mysql --host=localhost --user=myname --password mydb
mysql -h localhost -u myname -p mydb

When the --password or -p option is given with no password value, the client program prints a prompt and waits for you to enter the password. (In these examples, mydb is not interpreted as a password because it is separated from the preceding password option by a space.)

On some systems, the library routine that MySQL uses to prompt for a password automatically limits the password to eight characters. That limitation is a property of the system library, not MySQL. Internally, MySQL does not have any limit for the length of the password. To work around the limitation on systems affected by it, specify your password in an option file (see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”). Another workaround is to change your MySQL password to a value that has eight or fewer characters, but that has the disadvantage that shorter passwords tend to be less secure.

Client programs determine what type of connection to make as follows:

  • If the host is not specified or is localhost, a connection to the local host occurs:

    • On Windows, the client connects using shared memory, if the server was started with the shared_memory system variable enabled to support shared-memory connections.

    • On Unix, MySQL programs treat the host name localhost specially, in a way that is likely different from what you expect compared to other network-based programs: the client connects using a Unix socket file. The --socket option or the MYSQL_UNIX_PORT environment variable may be used to specify the socket name.

  • On Windows, if host is . (period), or TCP/IP is not enabled and --socket is not specified or the host is empty, the client connects using a named pipe, if the server was started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections. If named-pipe connections are not supported or if the user making the connection is not a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable, an error occurs.

  • Otherwise, the connection uses TCP/IP.

The --protocol option enables you to use a particular transport protocol even when other options normally result in use of a different protocol. That is, --protocol specifies the transport protocol explicitly and overrides the preceding rules, even for localhost.

Only connection options that are relevant to the selected transport protocol are used or checked. Other connection options are ignored. For example, with --host=localhost on Unix, the client attempts to connect to the local server using a Unix socket file, even if a --port or -P option is given to specify a TCP/IP port number.

To ensure that the client makes a TCP/IP connection to the local server, use --host or -h to specify a host name value of 127.0.0.1 (instead of localhost), or the IP address or name of the local server. You can also specify the transport protocol explicitly, even for localhost, by using the --protocol=TCP option. Examples:

mysql --host=127.0.0.1
mysql --protocol=TCP

If the server is configured to accept IPv6 connections, clients can connect to the local server over IPv6 using --host=::1. See Section 5.1.13, “IPv6 Support”.

On Windows, to force a MySQL client to use a named-pipe connection, specify the --pipe or --protocol=PIPE option, or specify . (period) as the host name. If the server was not started with the named_pipe system variable enabled to support named-pipe connections or if the user making the connection is not a member of the Windows group specified by the named_pipe_full_access_group system variable, an error occurs. Use the --socket option to specify the name of the pipe if you do not want to use the default pipe name.

Connections to remote servers use TCP/IP. This command connects to the server running on remote.example.com using the default port number (3306):

mysql --host=remote.example.com

To specify a port number explicitly, use the --port or -P option:

mysql --host=remote.example.com --port=13306

You can specify a port number for connections to a local server, too. However, as indicated previously, connections to localhost on Unix use a socket file by default, so unless you force a TCP/IP connection as previously described, any option that specifies a port number is ignored.

For this command, the program uses a socket file on Unix and the --port option is ignored:

mysql --port=13306 --host=localhost

To cause the port number to be used, force a TCP/IP connection. For example, invoke the program in either of these ways:

mysql --port=13306 --host=127.0.0.1
mysql --port=13306 --protocol=TCP

For additional information about options that control how client programs establish connections to the server, see Section 4.2.3, “Command Options for Connecting to the Server”.

It is possible to specify connection parameters without entering them on the command line each time you invoke a client program:

  • Specify the connection parameters in the [client] section of an option file. The relevant section of the file might look like this:

    [client]
    host=host_name
    user=user_name
    password=password

    For more information, see Section 4.2.2.2, “Using Option Files”.

  • Some connection parameters can be specified using environment variables. Examples:

    • To specify the host for mysql, use MYSQL_HOST.

    • On Windows, to specify the MySQL user name, use USER.

    For a list of supported environment variables, see Section 4.9, “Environment Variables”.

How do I connect to an existing MySQL database?

To access MySQL Server using Workbench:.
Run MySQL Workbench..
On the Database menu, click Connect to Database. ... .
In the Connect to Database window that appears, specify the Connection name as well as provide the host name, port, and user values..
(Optional step). ... .
(Optional step)..

How do I remotely access a MySQL database from another computer?

via cPanel Log in to cPanel. Under the Databases section, click on the Remote MySQL® icon. On the Remote MySQL® page, enter the connecting IP address, then click Add Host.

How do I remotely connect to a database?

Allowing a Remote Server to Access Your Database.
Log into cPanel and click the Remote MySQL icon under Databases..
Type in the connecting IP address, and click the Add Host button. ... .
Click Add, and you should now be able to connect remotely to your database..

How do I connect to a MySQL IP address?

Select Connections from the SQL navigation menu. In the Authorized networks section, click Add network and enter the IP address of the machine where the client is installed. Note: The IP address of the instance and the mysql client IP address you authorize must be the same IP version: either IPv4 or IPv6. Click Done.