Connecting to MySQL
Before Connection: What information is needed?

Navicat needs the following information for connecting to a MySQL server:
1. The host name or IP address of the MySQL server
2. The port on which MySQL runs on the host server. The default port is 3306
3. A user name and password for authenticating on the MySQL server. Keep in mind that they are not necessarily the same as the user name and password that you use to log onto your PC or network.

After you installed MySQL server, the default username is root and there is no password. You can access a database - mysql. In this database, you can add a new user to User table. If your MySQL server is installed in Windows platform, you can use Manage User function to add new user, delete user or configure user privileges.

NOTE: Navicat would be able to access your remote MySQL server whether it is running on Linux, Unix, Mac, Windows platform. If you couldn't connect your remote MySQL server via Internet, please kindly visit the FAQ section for detailed explanation.

Setting up Connections

1. In Navicat pull-down menu, please choose [Connection] and then choose [New Connection]. The Connection Properties Window will be shown.
2. Enter the Connection Name (friendly name), Host Name (your MySQL server's hostname or IP address), Port (of the MySQL server), User Name (your MySQL user name) and Password (your MySQL password) for the connection. To use compression between the MySQL server and Navicat, check Use Compression
3. To have your queries and beckups saved to a specific location, set the Settings Save Path to a directory of your choice. Select a different directory for each server connection in order to keep the files well organised.
4. Check Auto Connect to automatically connect to the MySQL server at start-up.
5. Select the language Encoding from the list.

You can test your connection settings by clicking on the Test Connection button.

What is Advanced Connection Settings?

The Advanced Connection Settings allows you to:

1. Specify whether you want to see all databases on a server or only a selection of databases on the server
2. Manually add databases to a server connection for servers that does not return a list of database names
   
   

How to show only selected databases on a server?

1. Check the Use Advanced Connections checkbox
2. Use the Databases check-listbox to check databases that you want to show and uncheck the databases that you don't want to show in the Server Navigator. Use the Select - and Deselect All button to quickly check/uncheck all databases shown in the Databases check-listbox
   
   

How to manually add databases to a server connection?

Click "Add DB to List" button, and input the name of Database that you want to add. Press OK to confirm.

Setting Save Path

After you created a new connection, Navicat will create a subfolder under the Setting Save Path location on your computer. If you created a new backup, it will be stored in the subfolders. The backup will include the table structure and the data.

All of your queries and backup were stored in the Setting Save Path location.

Use SSL Connection
To get secure connections to work with MySQL, you must install the OpenSSL library (www.openssl.org) and download MySQL database source. After the installation finished, you can check if a running mysqld server supports OpenSSL by examining if the query statement [SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'have_openssl';] returns YES.

Even you've installed OpenSSL with MySQL successfully, you still couldn't start to use SSL connection. It's because you have to setup SSL Certificates for your MySQL server and your Navicat.

For full explanation, please visit [SSL Connection White Paper] .

Making the Connection
In the Navicat Main Window , double click on the server you want to connect to in the Server Navigator. If the connection to the server was successful, the icon next to the server will change from (an inactive connection) to (an active connection) and the tree view will expand to show the databases on the server according to how you have set up your advanced connection settings.

NOTE: Navicat would be able to access your remote MySQL server whether it is running on Linux, Unix, Mac, Windows platform. If you couldn't connect your remote MySQL server via Internet, please kindly visit the FAQ section for detailed explanation.

1. Click Connections button from the main screen.
2. Enter the name you wish to associate the connection with in Connection Name (this name will be used to indicate the connection in the Server Navigator).
3. Enter either the hostname or IP address of you MySQL server in Host name.
4. Check Use Compression if you want to compress the communication between Navicat and the MySQL server.
5. Enter the port number into Port (3306 is the default port number on which MySQL runs).
6. Provide the user name and password for the connection in User name and Password.
7. Click the Save button to save your changes.
8. The connection you have just set up should be displayed in the Server Navigator , Double click on the connection item to open your connection to the server. Remember that you can set up and open connections to multiple servers in Navicat.