I've previously done one website where the host had phpMyAdmin and I had an easy time setting up the db.
No such luck this time - it's an existing website with an existing db and I honestly don't even know how to find where the db is located. The most I've been able to gather is the login and password to the db, but I can't figure out where the files to the db exist on the server and looking at the site via ftp I can't see anything.
How to find existing db on website?
I'm confused - if you're trying to access a database, what "files" are you talking about?
Also, if you want to look at the database, you could just install phpMyAdmin yourself.
The database is existing on the website and I have no idea where it is or how to take a look at it.
Are we talkin about a MySQL database here? If so... you'd have to know the address of the db server (if you have some existing scripts, look at the [man]mysql_connect/man call to get the address). Then, you could install phpMyAdmin to visually inspect the database.
The mysql_connect() call - awesome, thanks! (Right now, it's all Greek to me but I have 10 days to figure out what the heck is going on. See you around. 
This script I whipped up some time ago might be useful to you:
<?php
/*
* CLASS: ShowTables
* PURPOSE: For specified database, shows structure of each table
* NOTES: Expects the following POST data:
* submit: {any value}
* host: database host
* user: database user name
* password: database user password
* database: database name
* HISTORY:
* CREATED: 2005/12/10 by Charles Reace
* copyright (c) 2005 by Charles Reace, www.charles-reace.com
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
* of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
*/
class ShowTables
{
// ATTRIBUTES:
var $error = ""; # error message
var $connx = ""; # mysql connection ID
var $tables = array();
// METHODS:
// constructor:
function ShowTables()
{
if(empty($_POST['submit']))
{
return(null); // do nothing if form not submitted.
}
if($this->dbConnect())
{
$this->cleanPost();
if(!empty($_POST['table']))
{
$this->tables[] = $_POST['table'];
}
else
{
$this->getTables();
}
if(count($this->tables) > 0)
{
echo "<h2>Table Descriptions for Database '{$_POST['database']}'</h2>\n";
if(! $this->describe())
{
echo "<p class='error'>{$this->error}</p>\n";
}
}
else
{
echo "<p class='error'>No table found.</p>\n";
}
}
else
{
echo "<p class='error'>{$this->error}</p>\n";
}
} // end constructor
/*
* void cleanPost(void)
* PURPOSE: clean up Post data to make safe for use in queries
*/
function cleanPost()
{
foreach($_POST as $key => $val)
{
if(get_magic_quotes_gpc())
{
$val = stripslashes($val);
}
$_POST[$key] = mysql_real_escape_string($val);
}
}
/*
* bool dbConnect(void)
* PURPOSE: connect to mysql and select db
* RETURNS: true on success, else false, saves error message to $this->error
*/
function dbConnect()
{
extract($_POST, EXTR_PREFIX_ALL, "DB");
$connx = mysql_connect($DB_host, $DB_user, $DB_password);
if($connx)
{
$result = @mysql_select_db($DB_database);
if(!$result)
{
$this->error = "Unable to select database $DB_database.";
mysql_close($connx);
return(FALSE);
}
$this->connx = $connx;
}
else
{
$this->error = "Unable to connect to MySQL. Check values for host, user, and password.";
return(FALSE);
}
return(TRUE);
} // end dbConnect()
/*
* bool getTables(void)
* PURPOSE: get table names db, store them in $this->tables
* RETURNS: true on success, else false, stores error msg in $this->error
*/
function getTables()
{
$result = mysql_query("SHOW TABLES", $this->connx);
if($result)
{
while($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
$this->tables[] = $row[0];
}
return(TRUE);
}
else
{
$this->error = "Problem getting list of tables from DB. - ".mysql_error();
return(FALSE);
}
} // end getTables()
/*
* bool describe(void)
* PURPOSE: run the MySQL DESCRIBE query on each table
* RETURNS: true on success, else false, stores error msg in $this->error
*/
function describe()
{
foreach($this->tables as $key => $table)
{
echo "<h3>Table: $table</h3>\n";
echo "<table>\n";
$thFlag = FALSE; // indicates whether column headers have been output yet
$result = @mysql_query("DESCRIBE `$table`");
if(!$result)
{
$this->error = "Describe query failed. - " . mysql_error();
return(FALSE);
}
else
{
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
if(!$thFlag)
{
$thFlag = TRUE;
echo "<tr>";
foreach($row as $key => $val)
{
echo "<th>$key</th>";
}
echo "</tr>\n";
}
echo "<tr>";
foreach($row as $val)
{
echo "<td>$val</td>";
}
echo "</tr>\n";
}
}
echo "</table>\n";
}
return(TRUE);
} // end describe()
} // end class ShowTables
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV='Content-Type' CONTENT='text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1'>
<title>MySQL DB Structure</title>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
font: medium arial, sans-serif;
background-color: #e6f6ff;
color: black;
margin: 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
}
fieldset {
width: 20em;
}
fieldset p {
margin: 0.25em 0;
padding: 0;
clear: both;
}
legend {
font-weight: bold;
}
label {
float: left;
clear: left;
width: 5em;
text-align: right;
margin: 0.2em 0.5em;
padding: 0;
}
input {
float: left;
clear: right;
margin: 0.2em 0.5em;
padding: 0;
}
.submit {
text-align: center;
}
.submit input {
float: none;
}
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
border: solid 2px black;
}
th, td {
padding: 2px 4px;
font-size: 85%;
border: solid 1px black;
}
th {
border-bottom: solid 2px black;
background-color: #ddd;
}
h3 {
font-size: medium;
margin: 1em 0 0.5em 0;
padding: 0.25em;
}
.error {
background-color: inherit;
color: #c03;
}
#colophon {
font-size: small;
text-align: center;
margin-top: 2em;
padding-top: 1em;
border-top: solid 1px #ccc;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Get MySQL Database Structure</h1>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<fieldset>
<legend>Get DB Structure</legend>
<p>
<label for="host">DB Host:</label>
<input type="text" name="host" id="host" value="localhost"
size="24" maxlength="32">
</p>
<p>
<label for="user">DB User:</label>
<input type="text" name="user" id="user" size="16" maxlength="16">
</p>
<p>
<label for="password">Password:</label>
<input type="password" name="password" id="password" size="16" maxlength="16">
</p>
<p>
<label for="database">Database:</label>
<input type="text" name="database" id="database" size="24" maxlength="32">
</p>
<p>
<label for="table">Table (opt):</label>
<input type="text" name="table" id="table" size="24" maxlength="32">
</p>
<p class="submit">
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Show Tables">
</p>
</fieldset>
</form>
<?php
$show = new ShowTables;
?>
<p id="colophon">
Copyright © 2005 by Charles Reace,
<a href="http://www.charles-reace.com">www.charles-reace.com</a>,<br>
This software may be freely distributed under the terms of the
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html#SEC1">GNU Public License</a>.
</p>
</body>
</html>
If you don't know the available database names, run this (but remove it from your system when you're done, no need to make this info public to everyone). Be sure to change the host, user, and password as required:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1'>
<title>Databases</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Databases</h1>
<ul>
<?php
$connx = mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'password') or die('connect failed');
$sql = 'SHOW DATABASES';
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error()."<br>$sql");
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo "<li>{$row['Database']}</li>\n";
}
?>
</ul>
</body>
</html>