Not able to start mysqld as windows service as well as from command line in windows 8
Connecting from the localhost shouldn't be an issue, but edit your "C:\ProgramData\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.7\my.ini" file and change the bind-adress from 127.0.0.1 to the external IP address. Also, set mysql skip-networking to off. Finally, set a rule on windows firewall to allow connections on port 3306.