Confusion with objects

Help! I've finally decided to try and implement some limited objects with a new project - beginning with a connection to the database itself. However, it's not working as I would have expected. Usually I would connect to the database with a function such as: function db_connect() { $result = @mysql_connect($host, $user, $password'); if(!$result) return false; else return true; } Provided the correct parameters were passed to the function the connection would be established and the function would return a positive value. I would have thought the same logic would apply if housing the function within a class such as: class Db { function DbConnect() { $result = @mysql_connect($host, $user, $password'); if(!$result) return false; else return true; } } Yet, when trying to test this the latter function seems to return a positive value irrespective of the information contained in variables such as $host and $user. This might seem a minor issue but it's driving me nuts. I know the above object is not written in the most elegant manner but I'm trying to understand the basics of this. I'm sure I'm missing something idiotically simple but what is it? Thanks in advance, Michael Egan