[SOLVED] ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host '' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

Issue

Why oh why can I not connect to mysql?

mysql -u root -ptest101 -h xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

In my.cnf I have the below

# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address        = 0.0.0.0

I also ran the below...

'UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = PASSWORD('test101') WHERE User = 'root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

I can access on the host machine using mysql -u root -ptest101 but not using mysql -u root -ptest101 -h xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Wow...why is this happening? I am n ubuntj 12.04

mysql> SELECT host FROM mysql.user WHERE User = 'root';
+---------------------------------------------+
| host                                        |
+---------------------------------------------+
| %                                           |
| 127.0.0.1                                   |
| ::1                                         | |
| localhost                                   |
+---------------------------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Solution

Your root account, and this statement applies to any account, may only have been added with localhost access (which is recommended).

You can check this with:

SELECT host FROM mysql.user WHERE User = 'root';

If you only see results with localhost and 127.0.0.1, you cannot connect from an external source. If you see other IP addresses, but not the one you're connecting from - that's also an indication.

You will need to add the IP address of each system that you want to grant access to, and then grant privileges:

CREATE USER 'root'@'ip_address' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'ip_address';

If you see %, well then, there's another problem altogether as that is "any remote source". If however you do want any/all systems to connect via root, use the % wildcard to grant access:

CREATE USER 'root'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%';

Finally, reload the permissions, and you should be able to have remote access:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Answered By - newfurniturey

Answer Checked By - Clifford M. (WPSolving Volunteer)