Can't login to Mysql with password via PHP

Hi, I am pretty new to MySQL and PHP.

I am running Mysql 5.0 and Php 4.3.4 on Win 2000.

I am also using Apache as my Web Server.

I have been able to establish connectivity to mysql
using various commands.

mysql -u root -p

this prompts me for a password and I can login once the correct password is entered.

i can also still do:
mysql
by itself and that will log me in as a ODBC/blank user (is this secure?)

I created a new user in mysql control center and gave it global privs and a password.

and i am also able to execute
mysql -u newuser -p
and this all works.

Now I go to the php side of things
and try to execute
mysql_connect(localhost,"newuser","password") or die("unable to connect");
and all I get is unable to connect.

Unless I change the password on this new user to NULL ie ""
If I do this in php it connects and allows me to select the write database and select from some tables. Now I have also tried this as the root user and I receive the same "unable to connect" message from php.

Any ideas of why it won't accept a password when trying to connect? I am too new to know if I have set something up correctly.

Thanks for any help.

you need to put quotes around the localhost, as the host should be passed as a string.

For example: