Enable remote access to mysql

There are three steps to do:
First, edit my.cnf:

[mysqld] 

Make sure line skip-networking is commented (or remove line) and add following line

bind-address=YOUR-SERVER-IP

For example, if your MySQL server IP is 65.55.55.2 then entire block should be look like as follows:

[mysqld]
user            = mysql
pid-file        = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket          = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port            = 3306
basedir         = /usr
datadir         = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir          = /tmp
language        = /usr/share/mysql/English
bind-address    = 65.55.55.2
# skip-networking
....
..
....

Where,

• bind-address : IP address to bind to.
• skip-networking : Don’t listen for TCP/IP connections at all. All interaction with mysqld must be made via Unix sockets. This option is highly recommended for systems where only local requests are allowed. Since you need to allow remote connection this line should be removed from my.cnf or put it in comment state.

Second, grant access right to remote user

If you want to add a new database called foo for user bar and remote IP 202.54.10.20 then you need to type the following commands at mysql> prompt:mysql> CREATE DATABASE foo;
mysql> GRANT ALL ON foo.* TO bar@'202.54.10.20' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';

How Do I Grant Access To An Existing Database?

Let us assume that you are always making connection from remote IP called 202.54.10.20 for database called webdb for user webadmin, To grant access to this IP address type the following command At mysql> prompt for existing database, enter:
mysql> update db set Host='202.54.10.20' where Db='webdb';
mysql> update user set Host='202.54.10.20' where user='webadmin';

Third, open firewall ports (go to firewall note)

source: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-do-i-enable-remote-access-to-mysql-database-server.html