how to not send plaintext when using mysql_connect

http://www.php.net/manual/function.mysql-connect.php indicates that I have to use the plaintext version of my password... this is unacceptable for having the website server connecting to the mySQL server as it can be sniffed easily. Is there a way to encrypt this information somehow? there is a comment at the bottom of the page, but I'm not sure I understand it. It implies that MD5 is done transparently somehow, but I'm told by my IS department that they are able to sniff the user/password that I'm sending in my PHP scripts... bdonor@westnet.com 10-Sep-2000 04:22 I'm sure most people have figured this out (possibly I missed it in the documentation) but both mysql_connect and mysql_pconnect expect the plaintext password, NOT the MD5 hash of the password. It does that all by itself.