I've been trying to create a connection to mysql on a Linux server from Windows XP with MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver. After setting all of my credentials to test the connection I get the following error. "[MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver]Host is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server". After looking up the error most references I found were to firewalls so for testing I disabled my local firewall and retried but got the same error message. I wanted to make sure that the port was open on Linux so I ran netstat -nap on the server and it showed mysql was running on the expected port and listening. I also went to this site to check my port. http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ and it stated that the port was open.

The mysql database is working fine when you are running queries locally but trying to connect from outside of the server is when you run into issues. I don't really know what other steps to take in debugging the problem; any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks and let me know if you need any more details about the problem.

-Jeff

first things first: you don't really want to open 3306 to entire world, do you?
you need to add your IP to mysql's users database as "hostname". otherwise, yes, you won't be able to contact mysql. i suppose it is meant by that error.

As it shows here http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/create-user.html, user's are associated with the system(s) they can connect from. You'll need to ensure you have a user entry that matches your client box, or define them using a wildcard.