title: Can't connect to remote MySQL server with error 61
body: <p>When I tried to connect the remote MySQL server by using command line <code>mysql -h &lt;remote-ip&gt; -u any_existing_users -p</code> or any other mysql client such as phpmyadmin, it didn't work and the error hint was</p>
  
  <pre><code>ERROR 2003 (HY000) Can't connect to MySQL server on '&lt;remote-ip&gt;' (61)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But, when I tried <code>ssh &lt;remote-ip&gt;</code> and connected the MySQL locally by <code>mysql -u root -p</code>, there is no problem.</p>
  
  <p>Here is part of the user table(<code>SELECT User, Host FROM mysql.user;</code>):</p>
  
  <pre><code>+------------------+----------------+
  | User             | Host           |
  +------------------+----------------+
  | root             | %              |
  | other_users      | &lt;remote-ip&gt;    |
  | root             | localhost      |
  +------------------+----------------+
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here is the iptable:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
  num  target     prot opt source               destination         
  1    RH-Firewall-1-INPUT  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           
  
  Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
  num  target     prot opt source               destination         
  1    RH-Firewall-1-INPUT  all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           
  
  Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
  num  target     prot opt source               destination         
  
  Chain RH-Firewall-1-INPUT (2 references)
  num  target     prot opt source               destination         
  1    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           
  2    ACCEPT     icmp --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           icmp type 255 
  3    ACCEPT     esp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           
  4    ACCEPT     ah   --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           
  5    ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            224.0.0.251         udp dpt:5353 
  6    ACCEPT     udp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           udp dpt:631 
  7    ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           tcp dpt:631 
  8    ACCEPT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 
  9    ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:22 
  10   REJECT     all  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 
  11   ACCEPT     tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0            0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:3306 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So, what's the problem?</p>