cannot access my DB server on ubuntu server OS: Ubuntu 14.04
MYSQL Server version: 5.5.43-0ubuntu


The output of: 

select User, host from user 


is:

db    %
db    localhost 


In my /etc/mysql/my.cnf, I made sure that bind-address is set to the real IP address of the server. I can connect to the server from my laptop using sftp and ssh

Yet, it refuses to connect me when I try to connect using mysqlbench error: can't connect to MySQL server on 'xxxxxxx' 10061

I can also access the web server fine from a browser, it displays the default ubuntu page.

What am I missing?

Update:

I was able to connect when I did: bind-addess=0.0.0.0

This obviously creates a security risk, as you can connect from any IP address, but there was an issue with the way Amazon EC2 assigns internal and external IP addresses, so I have to figure out the correct IP address to bind to.
If you copied and pasted that output from your SELECT statement, you have a typo in 'localhost'. That could be causing your problem.