Working locally, can't connect in Laravel to remote DB - pdo

Question

I'm trying to work locally in Laravel and am having trouble connecting to a remote database. I've used my domain name (domain.org) as my host, and then password, username and database name as normal. But I get this error:
PDO::__construct(): Premature end of data (mysqlnd_wireprotocol.c:553)
If I look at the file where the error is happening, it's in my PDO connection in the MySQL driver. I asked my ISP about settings and he said to use domain.org or the IP. I tried both and I still get the error. I tried setting the port to the standard 3306 and still get the error. I can't use localhost as my host because that would refer to my local computer. Can someone help? What do I need to do to connect?

Answer 1

I think this is a difference between the encryption used in the version of MySQL on your web host, and that used by your PHP version.
Have a look at the accepted answer on this question:
Remote mySQL connection throws "cannot connect to MySQL 4.1+ using the old insecure authentication" error from XAMPP
As regards a solution, your web host may or may not be willing to change your MySQL settings - but my guess is that if they are running an old MySQL, they will also be running an old version of PHP. Laravel requires 5.3.

Answer 2

To use "Remote Mysql" you would need to add your IP to the white-list on the server and also configure Mysql to accept remote connections

Answer 3

Old question but, a lot people may need this, so adding what worked for me
In 5.6+, also will be working on lessor version
DB_CONNECTION_REMOTE=mysql
DB_HOST_REMOTE=remotehost
DB_PORT_REMOTE=3306
DB_DATABASE_REMOTE=database_name
DB_USERNAME_REMOTE=database_user
DB_PASSWORD_REMOTE=database_password
and in config/database.php
'connections' => [
'mysqlRemote' => [
'driver' => 'mysql',
'host' => env('DB_HOST_REMOTE', '127.0.0.1'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT_REMOTE', '3306'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE_REMOTE', 'forge'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME_REMOTE', 'forge'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD_REMOTE', ''),
'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
'prefix' => '',
'strict' => false,
'engine' => null,
],
and then in your controller
$records = DB::connection('mysqlRemote')->select( DB::raw('SELECT `col1`, `col2` FROM `table`') );
if your IP is white-listed, it should work fine, tested in Laravel 5.6