Cannot connect to database from php pages

Take a look at the moodle thread I've linked to in the OP - unfortunately I haven't got any more descriptive error than that (highlighted in Red)

Thanks for suggestion TiberiuGal - but as in the start of my other Moodle post that was one of the first things I tried and it didn't work..

Sorry, I skiped that line :) I also got dizzy reading that thread.
Please tell me where exactly do you stand now.I mean ...which version of what do you have installed atm?!
Did you manage to connect to the database from a php script (not within moodle)?

I haven't tried connecting from a php script but this would be a good test - Could you please point me to some details of how to do this?

Thanks I tried the code by changed each mysql into mssql (mysql service is stopped for now) but get a HTTP error 500

mssql_error() is not valid.  FYI.  Change that to something like $conn = mssql_connect(DBSERVER,DBUSER,DBPASS) or die ("wtf");

Doesn't give you the SQL error but you only have a few variables to work with, if you cannot get this to work you may have other problems.  Look at this page:

http://www.helpspot.com/helpdesk/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=13

Yeap we got other wtf issues..

We don't have the ntwdblib.dll file in PHP ext or even commented in php.ini
If fact these are the only extensions in the ext directory:
php_curl.dll
php_exif.dll
php_gd2.dll
php_gettext.dll
php_imap.dll
php_mbstring.dll
php_mssql.dll
php_mysql.dll
php_mysqli.dll
php_openssl.dll
php_pdo.dll
php_pdo_mysql.dll
php_pdo_sqlite.dll
php_soap.dll
php_tidy.dll
php_wincache.dll
php_xmlrpc.dll
php_zip.dll

I see a php_mssql.dll, this issue may not apply to your version.  Double check that.  Make sure MSSQL is enabled in php.ini.  Did you use the windows installer?  If you did you can just run that executable, choose modify (or change) and make sure that the MSSQL extension is installed.

Yes it's enabled in php.ini

I've tried the test.php connection for mysql (I don't mind it running with either DB at this stage)
I get this error:

Can't open name pipe to host: . pipe: MySQL (2)

What does the (2) mean - could we have two instances of mysql installed and it's getting confused between them? If so how can I confirm / remove them.. There is only one mysql service..

yeap but port 3306 was already being used so we used port 3308 instead...

Add the port to DBSERVER, see below.

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http://www.HDWebStudios.com/hosting.php

<?PHP
//Database Settings
	define("DBNAME","MoodleDB"); //Name of database
	define("DBSERVER",".:3308"); //Server name where the database lives [.] for localhost
	define("DBUSER","Username"); //Username for database
	define("DBPASS","Password"); //Password for database
 
//Create DB Connection
	$conn = mysql_connect(DBSERVER,DBUSER,DBPASS) or die (mysql_error());
	echo "Successfully connected!";
?>
                                              

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Have done - still get same error tho
Can't open name pipe to host: . pipe: MySQL (2)

You may want to try adding "host = localhost" in "my.ini" in mySQL in the client mechine.

[client]
host=localhost

Comment out those:

#protocol = pipe
#socket=mysql

I updated the client section as above in my.ini on the server mysqy install directory..

There weren't either of the others protocol or socket..

Still no luck

Anything else we can try to get this working?

I am told I may need to setup freeTDS to get the database connection working..
I've downloaded a Non-Thread Safe DLL for php5.2 from moodle.org and added it to the \php\ext folder

I added this line to php.ini under [mysql]
extension=php_dblib.dll

created freetds.conf file in c:\ with the following content
[global]
host = 192.serverIP..
port = 3308
client charset = UTF-8
tds version = 8.0
text size = 20971520


Is this required and if so am I on the right track here?

This should not be needed unless it is a Plesk thing.  I mean I have this working on a Windows 2008 server here and it just wasn't this difficult.  I am using the standard port, but still doesn't seem to be your problem.  I would start looking at everything I guess.  Can you pull a phpinfo page?  I'm sure you already know this but make a page something.php and put <?PHP phpinfo(); ?> in the file.  Upload and run, do you get the page?

Yeap I can get phpinfo page and the database section is in the moodle thread too..
I don't see how this can be soo difficult either!

OK I've decided to start again from scratch using the exact same config as the moodlewindows.za.net guide (win2k3 server, iis6, sql2005, non thread sage php 5.2 fastcgi, freetds) and have followed everything in there exactly, however now we are still getting Error: Database connection failed.

In the phpinfo.php page now there is no database section at all..
I have tried setting up error_log = syslog in php.ini but there are now events written to event log..

Any simple suggestions how I might enable the database section of phpinfo.php and get around this error?

Ok.  Sounds like you are using MSSQL then.  Run the PHP install executable, select "Change", drill down and find the MSSQL extension.  Install it.  When you are done, download the attached file, rename .txt to .dll, find it on your system, and replace it with this one (trust me MSSQL will never work if you do not, Google it if you want).  Restart w3svc and rerun phpinfo, make sure it shows up now.  Re-test.

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http://www.HDWebStudios.com/hosting.php

I was following the moodlewindows guide which recommends using freetds over the mssql.dll connection because of a Unicode problem / difference..
I have got this running now and the MSSQL section appears in phpinfo.php now so it seems the only problem is the connection to database.. I'm going to delete the DB and user and create them again and see how I go..
Is there another way to test this with error logging other than the $conn = mysql_connect method as above?
This is currently just giving the wtf message

it should be mssql_connect.