You can test whether the MySQL server is working by executing any of the following commands:

shell> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysqlshow"
shell> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysqlshow" -u root mysql
shell> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysqladmin" version status proc
shell> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0\bin\mysql" test

If mysqld is slow to respond to TCP/IP connections from client programs, there is probably a problem with your DNS. In this case, start mysqld with the --skip-name-resolve option and use only localhost and IP numbers in the Host column of the MySQL grant tables.

You can force a MySQL client to use a named-pipe connection rather than TCP/IP by specifying the --pipe or --protocol=PIPE option, or by specifying . (period) as the host name. Use the --socket option to specify the name of the pipe if you do not want to use the default pipe name.

Note that if you have set a password for the root account, deleted the anonymous account, or created a new user account, then you must use the appropriate -u and -p options with the commands shown above in order to connect with the MySQL Server. See Connecting to the MySQL Server.

For more information about mysqlshow, see mysqlshow.