I was trying to set up a new WordPress website where the files would be hosted on a subdomain of a GoDaddy hosting account whilst the MySQL database resides on another one of my server accounts, provided by Amplehosting.
I set up the Remote Database Access Hosts as prompted by the help via my Amplehosting account cPanel interface, uploaded a clean WordPress install to the GoDaddy account, stretched my fingers, and then set about running the simple WordPress setup…
…except that the simple WordPress setup was just not passing step 1, complaining at each and every attempt of a database error. With no other data to go on, I quickly whipped up a MySQL debug script and uploaded the custom PHP file to check on MySQL connections to the remote host via the GoDaddy account, and lo and behold, PHP spit out the follow error message to me:
“Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘reading initial communication packet’, system error: 110”
A quick Google search on the above phrase joined with the keyword “GoDaddy” almost immediately threw up a page from the GoDaddy support forums which further sunk my heart:
“I apologize if this was not clarified upon your purchase, however we do not permit connections to third party DB servers from within our hosting environment. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If the hosting plan no longer fits your needs, you can cancel it and be eligible for a refund of any unused time.”
So that’s it then. GoDaddy doesn’t not allow connections to external databases from within their hosting accounts, meaning I need to go and find another provider.
But now at least I’m not the only one fighting to figure out how come my setup just wasn’t working! :)