OK. I got one of the tools running. It shows that PHP actualy does contact MySQL server. Only it doesn't seem to produce any output on the page.

that's the code I use. IT should be alright. although a second opinion would be apriciated

<html>
<head>

<titlte></title>

</head>

<body>
<?php

$host = "127.0.0.1:3306";
$user = "php";
$password = "*******";

$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password)
or die ("Couldn't connect to a server");

$db = mysql_select_db("tourism", $connection)
or die ("Couldn't find database");

$query ="SELECT FROM hotels";
$result = mysql_query ($query)
or die ("couldn't execute");

if(!$result) die("Query Failed.");


$num = mysql_numrows($result);
mysql_close($connection);

$count = 0;

while ($count < $num) {

$hotelID=mysql_result($result,$i,"Hotel_ID");
$hotelName=mysql_result($result,$i,"Hotel_Name");

echo "<b>$hotelID $hotelName</b";

$count++;

}
?>


</body>

</html>