close port 3306 mysql?

ran nmap on a new server with centos and DA installed and found
3306/tcp open mysql

since all my apps use mysql as localhost, can i close this port? Will it affect running DA? ( i would hope not) Can anyone point me to a howto for this using APF as the firewall?

It will not affect DA operationg as long as the MySQL service is on the same problem. This will block connections for your users though who want to access the database from a different server

Here's an installation guide for APF if you haven't done so already:
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4873&highlight=apf

actually i think a btter solution is to add this to /etc/my.cnf

skip-networking

Click to expand...

under the [mysqld] section. It won't even bind to the port now.

Remote access to MySQL via port 3306

Hi!
A customer is asking me to access the MySQL server directly via port 3306, so he can use a sort of ODBC driver for a windows app.

I am not sure of the security of this... so I was wondering to recommend to sync via http.

Have you ever heard of something like that?
It comes to my mind things like SOAP, and sockets but don know of a reliable source of this for visual basic + php....

Can somebody help?

Personally I would just enable the port. It's going to be just as secure as phpmyadmin going through an unsecured (https) connection.

The real key question is do you want to allow access to your MySQL server from aps on his desktop/network? Or only through aps on your server?

This may need some thought as to your policy, since it could highly impact your server.

For example, if he's using it to use a desktop MySQL administration program (the MySQL site makes one available), that's one thing, but if he's using it to host a large MySQL database on your server for use inside his network, because he doesn't have enough resources on his network, that would be another thing entirely. (And a usage which we would not allow.)

Jeff