Remote Connection [SOLVED]

Hi all

Are there any tricks to connecting remotely to a database?

I have installed the WWF on a hosted server and its working fine.  I have a local copy of the forum on my home server (as a test version before uploading to the hosted site) but it won't connect to the remote database.  If I upload my  database ASP test page to the server, it connects successfully so I know the connection strings/password, etc are OK.

This is the error message I get with the test version of WWF and ASP page when run on local server:

Error details:-
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified

I use cheapnames.com (which I believe is a rebadged GoDaddy provider) and when I setup the MySQL database chose the option of "Direct Database Access" for remote connections.

Are there any changes I need to make to the connection string or does this sound like the database setup with my host hasn't worked correctly to allow remote access?

Note:  I can ping the hostname successfully.






Edited by aussiem8 - 06 May 2012 at 5:36pm

OK, finally got it working so thought I would post back in case others have similar issues.

After more unsuccessful googling and giving up on linking the servers, I thought I would try reinstalling WWF on the *local* computer. 

When I tested the database connection using ODBC 3.51 it failed (this is what WWF is using on the hosted server).  Once I selected 5.1 the connection test was successful. 

I guess this could mean that my host has 3.51 installed whereas my local machine has 5.1?

In any case, I'm happy again

Thanks Bruce - I didn't know they ran side by side. 

Just downloaded 3.51 it's now working on both dev machine and hosted server.