How do I enable external access to MySQL Server?

Question

How do I enable external access to MySQL Server? I can connect locally but I cannot connect from another box on the network.

I just tried

grant all privileges on *.* to root@'%' identified by '*****' with grant option;

And restarted MySQL Server with no success.

Answer 1

You probably have to edit the configuration file (usually my.cnf) to listen in the external interface instead of on localhost only.

change the bind-address parameter to your machine's IP address.

If this is an old MySQL installation, you should comment out the skip-networking parameter.

Afterwards, restart MySQL and you'll be set

Answer 2

Command and syntax looks fine. Have you checked the server is listening on an interface other than 127.0.0.1? By default Im pretty sure it only listens on the localhost address (127.0.0.1)