Allow remote mysql access on linux (through webmin or shell) - database

Question

Spec:
Ubuntu 14.04
webmin/virtualmin 1.791
I am using following code to test remote mysql database connection:
<?php
$db_host = "123.456.789";
$db_name = "database";
$db_user = "user";
$db_pass = "password";
$db_table_prefix = "prefix_";
GLOBAL $errors;
GLOBAL $successes;
$errors = array();
$successes = array();
$mysqli = new mysqli($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass, $db_name);
GLOBAL $mysqli;
if(mysqli_connect_errno()) {
echo "Conn Error = " . mysqli_connect_error();
exit();
}
?>
I keep getting this error:
No connection could be made because the target machine actively
refused it.
Research shows this means the server is "not listening". Before I ran the above script I've already tried to allow remote mysql access through webmin gui. What I did is editting "database manage->host permissions" and make it as follows:
This was supposed to allow remote mysql access but it doesn't work. Also I read from somewhere else that to allow remote mysql access I need to edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf; I have thought that after I edit the "host permissions" in webmin this file would be changed, but it was not. On the other hand, I couldn't find the lines I was supposed to edit in my.cnf, so I am stuck here.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can do this via webmin too,
Create your user account for remote access
Webmin > Servers > MySQL Database Server > User permissions
Allow the MySQL server to listen to remote requests
Webmin > Servers > MySQL Database Server > MySQL Server Configuration
MySQL server listening address - set it to any
Restart MySQL using service mysql restart or directly from webmin.
Allowing MySQL to listen to any port is not a good idea , unless you are the only one who can access that network ,
Don't leave it like this afterwards , Its better to Allow certain hosts on certain domains , like your IP , Or simply just dont listen on all ports if its not required i.e when you are finished with your session.
You can also do this via /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Just add a binding adress of your choice instead of localhost

Answer 2

I have got it to work, however not through webmin at all.
First I need to comment out the following line in /etc/mysql/my.cnf:
#bind-address = 127.0.0.1
I guess instead of simply commenting it out, I can also change 127.0.0.1 to my local IP address. Many google results stop here, but this is not enough. The next step is to grant the local user privileges: On remote server, I need to run the following commands:
$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
mysql> use mysql
mysql> GRANT ALL ON . to user#'localIP' IDENTIFIED BY
'password';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Actually I have seen this when I was doing google search before I asked the question here, but I just ignored it because I thought I've done it. It turns out I not only need to grant privileges on server side but also need to do it for "local user".
Feel free to comment here if there's still something I missed out or you know how to do it throught webmin(I am still wondering what editting "host permissions" in webmin does).