TerraTwilight

Hi, everyone! I'm brand new to PHP and MySQL, as well as to this forum, and I have an issue that I was hoping someone could help me with. I use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, and recently decided to get to work creating a database to use with the website I'm programming for, and the language that I decided to use was PHP. The help menu directions that I read on Dreamweaver were too confusing for me, so I then decided to get a book on starting to work with PHP and MySQL, and though I appreciate how clear the books is, it hasn't helped me to figure out how to fix my current problem. I have the book "PHP, MySQL and Apache: All in One", by Julie C. Meloni, in the "SAMS Teach Yourself" line of books, and I decided to follow every step in it from the absolute beginning so that I could minimize my chances of getting confused or making a mistake, and still, I have run into a problem that I don't think the book addresses. I have installed MySQL Server 5.0 onto my computer, which has a Windows XP operating system, and then I ran the Instance Configuration Wizard. When I got to the last screen, the one with the "Execute" button, and then clicked on it, it checked off the first three items in the list successfully until it got to the "Apply Security Settings" item, which it X'ed, and then gave the following message: "The security settings could not be applied. Error Number 2003. Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' (10061)" The book said that if I had any problems, that I should look for the answer in the MySQL Manual first, which is located on MySQL AB's website. I've been there, but the advice I read was describing things that I don't know how to do yet, because I haven't gotten to the part of the book that covers that yet. The book also says that I should check to see if the MySQL daemon is running, but neither the book nor the site explains what exactly the daemon is, or how to go about checking to see if it actually is running. I feel like I'm trying to learn this step by step, and yet still I'm being dragged into having to fumble around in the dark at times just in order to continue learning, and that's why I came here. This doesn't seem to me like it should be an uncommon problem, but all the same, I feel stuck and I'm not sure of what to do next. Can anyone tell me what my problem is, and, possibly, how I can fix it? Thanks for reading.