db.php can be used in the case where you would like to do the exercices at home without having to install PEAR. It *only* works with MySQL. To use it, include it on your PHP files by entering require_once "db.php"; (or replace "db.php" with for instance "../config.php" if you've moved it to the parent directory and named it "config.php") Here you go for the commands to enter on MySQL in order to create the same user name as the one at Bath University (oh... you need to connect to MySQL as "root" to do those): # This command will simply create a user called "cm20145db004" that has "password" as password and which only can connect locally and for the moment doesn't have any access to any database (if you want it to connect from anywhere just type "%" instead of "localhost") GRANT USAGE ON * . * TO "cm20145db004"@"localhost" IDENTIFIED BY "password" WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR 0 ; # Guess what this does !! CREATE DATABASE `cm20145db004` ; # This will give the permission to "cm20145db004" to access the database named "cm20145db004" ... don't forget to change the "localhost" to "%" if you changed the first query GRANT SELECT , INSERT , UPDATE , DELETE , CREATE , DROP , INDEX , ALTER , CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES ON `cm20145db004` . * TO "cm20145db004"@"localhost"; That's all... Now go edit the db.php file and enter your user name and password in it Cheers! S. Ali Tokmen http://ali.tokmen.com