If you are having problems connecting to back-end servers check these things:

Firewall Ports

The default ports that we use are TCP 3306 and 1443. Ensure that connections can be made by clients to the server on these ports. Check the local firewall and anti-virus settings on the server.

MySQL Server Connections

Check these settings:

• Server accepts TCP (network) connections and not just named pipe connections.
• Correctly functioning rDNS (Reverse DNS) on your network. MySQL uses rDNS during the TCP connection and authentication phase. Incorrect rDNS settings can seriously impact SQL server connection performance. You may need to use the --skip-name-resolve setting.

Basic TCP/IP Connectivity

Just because a windows system lets you 'see' shared folders and the like on other Windows PCs it does not mean that your basic TCP/IP (The protocol used for Internet connectivity.) networking is correctly configured.

A good first check is to use the ping command from a DOS command window. On the client PC try pinging the server machine. You should see at least:

• The requested server name converted into an IP address. This indicates that DNS (Domain name) resolution is working.
• A number of packets will be sent along with replies. There should be 0% loss. It will look something like this:

C:\Users\Mike>ping corsair
Pinging corsair [67.215.65.132] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=297ms TTL=43
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=272ms TTL=43
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=281ms TTL=43
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=281ms TTL=43

Ping statistics for 67.215.65.132:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 272ms, Maximum = 297ms, Average = 282ms

DNS

All TCP/IP networks should have a functioning DNS and rDNS (Domain Name Service) system. All requested host names should resolve to IP addresses and vice-versa.