Hi all, I've got: WinNT php 4.3.1 phpmyadmin 2.5.6 MySQL 4.0.18-nt I can connect to my db via my php script using: [php] $connection = mysql_connect ("localhost", "root", "") [/php] That works no problem. This will not work however: [php] $somePass = md5("somePass"); $connection = mysql_connect ("localhost", "someID", $somePass) [/php] gives me this error: [quote] Access denied for user: 'someID@localhost' <mailto:'someID@localhost'> (Using password: YES) [/quote] I set someID up in the db using phpmyadmin, with it's password using the md5() function. I can see via phpmyadmin that someID does indeed have a 32 byte encrypted password stored. I can then compare the stored md5 password to the md5 password I'm passing to try to connect...via $somePass. The encrypted passwords match exactly. Why wouldn't the match be confirmed...allowing me to connect? Thanks!