User Login function

Ogreen

I am trying to create a login function for a website i am building i am not to fluent in PHP but have been reading a bit to get me started heres what I have so far.

<?php 	$username = $_POST['username'];
		$password = $_POST['password'];
		$self = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
		$referer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];


#if either form field is empty return to the login page

if( ( !$username ) or ( !$password ) )
	{ header( "Location:$referer" ); exit(); }

#connect to mysql
$conn = @mysql_connect ("localhost", "mike", "bingo")
						or die( "could not connect" );

#select specified database
$rs = @mysql_select_db( "my_database", $conn )
			or die( "could not select database" );

#create the sql query
$sql="select * from users where user_name =\"$username\"
	  and password = password( \"$password\" )";

#execute the query
$rs = mysql_query( $sql, $conn )
		or die( "could not execute query" );

#get number of rows that match username and password
$num = mysql_numrows( $rs );
#if there  is a match the login is authenticated
if( $num != 0 )
{ $msg = "Welcome $username - your login succeeded!"; }
else #or return to login page
{ header( "Location:$referer" ); exit(); }
?>

when the login post button is clicked it just posts up ssaying cannot connect, I have put the mySQL database on the remote server and created a simple page to show it can connect to mySQL just to check

if anyone does know a better way than that please post

YAOMK

Hi, please edit your post and enclose your code using the appropriate php vB code. Thank you for the courtesy.

Ogreen

done and done

sorry it was late in the uk when i posted it.

YAOMK

If your script is to connect to a remote server then you need to update the parameters you gave mysql_connect() to use the ip and port etc of the remote server:

#connect to mysql
$conn = @mysql_connect ("localhost", "mike", "bingo")
                        or die( "could not connect" );

It would also be a good idea to echo sql errors so, don't suppress them with "@" and print them like this:

echo mysql_errno($conn) . ": " . mysql_error($conn) . "\n";