MySQL database target machine actively refuses connection - php

Question

I've been trying, for the past few days, to get a script on one server to connect to a MySQL database on another server. I've looked all over to see if I could find a solution and I've made little progress. What I'm doing is reading from a local database, then using that information to write to the desired database (which has a table of the same name). The code is as follows.
require_once($documentRoot."/Classes/DBHandler.php");
$db_controller1 = new DBHandler();
$query = "SELECT ...";
$temp = $db_controller1->select($query);
//Convert temporary database contents into usable result
while($rowObject=mysql_fetch_object($temp)){
$result[]=$rowObject;
}
//Create database handler to handle target database
//Server actively refuses this connection. Wrong IP address or user?
$db_controller2 = new mysqli("ip address:3306", "user", "password", "DB name");
if($db_controller2->connect_errno){
$errorMessage = sprintf("'%s'", $db_controller2->connect_error);
echo $errorMessage;
}
else{
$db_controller2->query("DELETE ...");
//Processing of data goes here
foreach($result as $item){
//Create query to insert individual records
$start = "INSERT INTO ...";
$end = sprintf("remainder of insertion query here");
$start .= $end;
//Database handler uses $start to insert record
$db_controller2->query($start);
}
$db_controller2->close();
}
Everyone I've talked to has agreed that the IP address itself is correct. What I find weird is that when I view the database after logging in through cPanel, the URL shows a port number of 2082 but checking database variables gives me a port number of 3306. All of the SQL queries are correct and there's nothing wrong with the PHP code. The errors I've been receiving differ depending on which port number I use. For 3306:
Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): (HY000/2002): No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. in C:\etc.\script.php on line 30
'No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. '
When I use 2082, I get a different error message:
Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): MySQL server has gone away in C:\etc.\script.php on line 28
Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): Error while reading greeting packet. PID=[PID here] in C:\etc.\script.php on line 28
Warning: mysqli::mysqli(): (HY000/2006): MySQL server has gone away in C:\etc.\script.php on line 28
I'm completely at a loss of what to do. Most of what I've seen seems to indicate that this is a server-related problem and I'd need to either create a new user with remote access permissions or modify an existing user to permit remote access, but for whatever reason, I can't do either of those things because there is no option for remote access.
Does anyone have suggestions? Connecting to the target database is no problem for any files on its same server.
Note: The "line X" messages are incorrect since I slightly modified what I posted here for confidentiality reasons. However, they're referring to the line where I create the new mysqli object.

Answer 1

On the machine running the target MySQL instance....
What is in your my.cnf file?
Probably here:
# vi /etc/my.cnf
Make sure that skip-networking is commented:
# skip-networking
Make sure bind-address is bound to the correct IP address:
bind-address 65.55.55.2
Lastly, check your firewall.