mysql_connect() using http protocol

Question

I am trying to connect to a MySql server (not localhost) from my computer using the code below. It is giving this error:

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: [2002] Connection refused (trying to connect via tcp://10.6.3.6:3306) in on line 7

I wonder if we can use the http protocol to connect instead of tcp that is being used by default? I searched quite a bit on how to change the protocol, but most of the answers were describing how to connect to localhost, and not much about how to connect to another server. Please help.

PS: I am able to connect to the server by going to http://10.6.3.6/phpmyadmin/...). So I am sure the server is up.

My Code

<?php

$db_hostname = '10.6.3.6';
$db_database = 'db_user11';
$db_username = 'db_user11';
$db_password = '########';

$db_server = mysql_connect($db_hostname, $db_username, $db_password);
if (!$db_server) die("Unable to connect to MySQL: " . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($db_database, $db_server)
or die("Unable to select database: " . mysql_error());

?>

Answer 1

You can't. HTTP is not a protocol suitable for this.

You are talking about 2 processes communicating here (MySQL Server and your app) and they either do it via shared memory, pipes or sockets. Those are the 3 ways that processes communicate with each other.

Answer 2

First of all, HTTP is layered on top of TCP/IP.
In order to connect to something via HTTP, it needs to run an HTTP server. MySQL does not run an HTTP server and there's no current/realistic/supported way to tunnel an SQL connection through HTTP. Even if there was, HTTP is not exactly the best protocol for this.

In short: no. You're trying to solve the wrong problem. You need to configure your MySQL server to allow connections from other machines over the network, give the user you're trying to connect with appropriate permissions to connect from other machines and make sure the MySQL server is reachable from other machines.