Why can't I telnet to MySQL?

Question

When trying to connect to mysql server via telnet I am getting following error:

telnet localhost 3306
Trying ::1...
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection timed out

I tried telnet with 127.0.0.1, hostname also, but getting same error message. But I can connect with mysql -u username -p once I am in the server.

Here is the result of netstat:

netstat -na | grep mysql
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     4540495  /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
unix  3      [ ]         STREAM     CONNECTED     4542200  /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

netstat -na | grep 3306
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:3306            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN  

What could be possible problems? If you need some more details I could provide it without any problems.

Thanks a lot.

Solution

MySQL uses the UNIX socket on localhost - much faster. It won't run on a TCP port unless you tell it to do so.

Comments

[Riccardo Murri]

@Bakhtior yes: ufw is a simplified frontend to iptables.

[Bakhtiyor]

So, why I am not able to telnet to mysql then?

[Riccardo Murri]

@Bakhtiyor Just a clarification: you say "When trying to connect to the MySQL server I get this error ..." and then "I can connect via ... once I'm in the server" Does this mean that you're trying the telnet localhost command on a host which is not the MySQL server host?

[Bakhtiyor]

First I am connecting to the server with ssh, and then right from the server I am executing telnet command.

[Riccardo Murri]

@Bakhtiyor ...and you've shut down the firewall on the server, right?

[Bakhtiyor]

Yes, right in the server I am disabling ufw.

[Riccardo Murri]

@Bakhtiyor Sorry, then I have no clue what's happening. I'll leave the answer hanging here as the comments might provide info for someone who knows.

[Bakhtiyor]

All right @Riccardo, thx a lot for trying to help me.