How to fix mysql connection error 111 in c++?

Question

I have tried everything I could find on this forum and the askubuntu forums relating to the issue. None of which have succeeded.

I have the following code. It compiles fine, but when I run it, i get the following error.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <mysql/mysql.h>

int main() {
    MYSQL *conn;
    MYSQL_RES *res;
    MYSQL_ROW row;
    const char *server = "mydomain";
    const char *user = "root";
    const char *password = "****************";
    const char *database = "tester";
    const int port = 3307;
    conn = mysql_init(NULL);

    if (!mysql_real_connect(conn, server, user, password, database, port, NULL, 0)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", mysql_error(conn));
        return(1);
    }

    if (mysql_query(conn, "SELECT * FROM test;")) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", mysql_error(conn));
        return(1);
    }

    res = mysql_use_result(conn);

    while((row = mysql_fetch_row(res)) != NULL) {
        printf("%s %s\n", row[1], row[2]);
        mysql_free_result(res);
        mysql_close(conn);
        return(0);

    }
}

Can't connect to MySQL server on 'mydomain' (111)

I have tried everything I could find on the internet to make it work. Including commenting out bind-address = 127.0.0.1 in the my.cnf and also tried changing it to bind-address - 0.0.0.0 but does not work. The mysql server is a remote server and root has all privileges both locally and remotely. I have mysql-client on my development machine and am able to connect fine to mysql via the terminal on the dev machine with: mysql -u root -p which is apparent by the picture

So my question is, does anyone have any clue as to why it is not connecting. Obviously it's not a firewall issue or I would not be able to connect from a terminal.

I have even tried compiling and running on the same machine as mysql is running and and still get the same error. I'm at my wits end just about.