PDO Connections to MySQL from PHP 

There is a long list of topics that I have worked with. It's always a matter of having enough time to try and put all that information together into videos.

I'm glad to see it, Steve. Thank you. I always knew server side was my passion. But I think like most everyone gets trapped thinking they must master JS. Then JS becomes this full-time program that seems you can never get enough of. I think the key to JS is in understanding where it's ok to stop. For your basic web developer, I think the basics along with the DOM and AJAX one should figure out this is where to walk away from. Otherwise you get trapped in an endless cycle where you become obsessed with trying to become something you dont need to be at the expense of everything else. I am so loving PHP and mysql: the two amigos ;) so much can be done with them.

Version 5.1 of PHP is where PDO was added. You would be hard pressed to find a server that isn't running at least that version, if not version 7. Here is the reference for PDO - php.net/manual/en/class.pdo.php

The mysql methods came first but were insecure. Then mysqli which was mysql improved. The PDO was added. PDO is a much better implementation which includes support for transactions. It is the best choice. No need for anything else.

It can be the domain name or an ip address. As long as the external server allows connections from external sources. When you create permissions for the users on the MySQL RDBMS you need to indicate whether it can be accessed from localhost or from external.

Yes thank you; I'm referring to a hosted website

Is your webserver running? Is your MySQL server running? correct ip address? correct port number?