What is the specific error message you are getting? can' t connect to MYSQL on ' ridgesushi. MySQL Error : Can' t connect to MySQL server. the Windows Service used for MySQL Server is removed from System Startup. SQL Error ( ) : Lost connection to MySQL server at ' reading inital communication packet', system error: 0. I used putty and is ablke to connect. How do I connect to my Amazon Relational Database Service ( Amazon RDS) DB instance running MySQL by using MySQL Workbench?