I need to connect to an Azure SQL DB from an external PHP app on shared cPanel hosting.

My host has enabled mssql\_connect but wont enable MS's recommended sqlsrv\_connect in the shared environment.

I have whitelisted the webserver IP in Azure's Portal, and whitelisted the DB address in cPanel.

The test script seems to try to connect, but cant. No error information is provided: <http://app.hivve.com.au/api/>

PHP is:

```
$db_server = "cjweb.database.windows.net:1433"; // update me
$db_username = "username";
$db_password = "password";

$conn = mssql_connect($db_server, $db_username, $db_password);

print_r(mssql_get_last_message());

```

Has anyone else been down this road? My host wont provide anymore assistance so Im stuck.