Troubleshooting: Error 111 - Unable to connect to MySQL server

Question

I installed the MySQL server on a Linux host with the IP address 192.168.1.100, but when I try to connect to this IP, I always get an error (111). But using localhost and 127.0.0.1 is ok.

beer@beer-laptop# ifconfig | grep "inet addr"
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet addr:192.168.1.100 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

beer@beer-laptop# mysql -ubeer -pbeer -h192.168.1.100
ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on '192.168.1.100' (111)

beer@beer-laptop# mysql -ubeer -pbeer -hlocalhost
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 160
Server version: 5.1.31-1ubuntu2 (Ubuntu)

Type 'help;' or 'h' for help. Type 'c' to clear the buffer.

mysql>

beer@beer-laptop# mysql -ubeer -pbeer -h127.0.0.1
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 161
Server version: 5.1.31-1ubuntu2 (Ubuntu)

Type 'help;' or 'h' for help. Type 'c' to clear the buffer.

mysql>

Error 111 also occurs when connecting from another machine.

another@another-laptop# mysql -ubeer -pbeer -h192.168.1.100
ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on '192.168.1.100' (111)

In this case, what is the difference between using localhost or 127.0.0.1 versus using 192.168.1.100? I don't know how to connect to this database from another machine.

Please help, thank you.

Answer 1

111 means connection refused, which means your mysqld is only listening on the localhost interface.

To make modifications, you can view the bind-address value of the mysqld section in the my.cnf file.

Answer 2

This probably means that your MySQL server is only listening on the localhost interface.

If you have a line similar to:

bind-address = 127.0.0.1

In your my.cnf configuration file, you should comment them out (add # at the beginning of the line) and then restart MySQL.

sudo service mysql restart

Of course, to perform this operation, you must be the administrator of the server.