Hi John-Paul,

thanks so much for your answer.

I think the username / password I should be using is the same one I use for the cpanel and ftp. It works for those, but I just tried it again and it doesn't work.

I have also re-tried two other usernames/passwords I created for the database, and they don't work.

Is this the correct pasword?

Should I be installing something via softalicious?

The form is here: http://whereverilaymyhat.net/cities.php

but the password is completely disabled at the moment, because the error message displays it on the screen.

thanks again, Jenny (geni)

thanks - I think I'm solving it by changing my code. The password I was using was correct, the error message is a little misleading.