Newbie to php

Good evening everyone, I am new (very new) to php. I was doing some research on the net and learn of this packaged and after reading just a couple of pages, i figure i should learn this instead of ASP. It looks so easy. Anyhow here is my problem. I am trying to connect to the database (MySQL) however, I can't I am connecting to the server, but I cannot connect to my sample database. Here is my script? <?php mysql_connect("nik", "", "") or die("could not connect to the database"); mysql_select_db("guestbook") or die ("could not connect to the specified database"); ?> I'm getting the "could not connect to the specified database" message. Please Help Thx Nik