Is telnet & SSH access required to build a MySQL/PHP website?

2025-04-03

Hi,

I hope this is in the right forum; I'm new to all this so please forgive me if it isn't.

I'm trying to learn PHP and MySQL in an effort to eventually set up a database driven fansite.

Anyhoo, in my travels I came across a text-based PHP page building program (a little like BBEdit or PageSpinner for the Mac folks) that provided me with a warning. The warning read as follows:

Originally Posted by JaneBUILDER

If your remote MySQL database is hosted and controlled by your ISP you must have now or they must give you telnet or SSH access in order to set up privileges in MySQL.(This not only applies to JaneBUILDER, but telnet, SSH and other MySQL tools as well.) You should note that many web based PHP and MySQL interfaces do NOT do this.

So I emailed the two hosting companies I'm considering signing up with and they replied that they don't give Telnet or SSH access for security reasons. However, one of them also indicated that such wasn't needed and that PHPMyAdmin was more than enough for the task of building a PHP/MySQL website.

Which brings me here. Is telnet and SSH access really needed? Will I be wasting money if I sign up with host that doesn't provide either? Or is PHPMyAdmin adequate enough for my needs?

Thanks in advance.