Most of the time the "private" directory on a web server is where you would store your login information to a database or other sensitive information. Drawbacks include if someone gets access to your website (control panel, or FTP) and can see things outside of your http. If the DB account has more than just select access on a few meaningless tables (read... menus, content, etc.) then you can most likely just put it into your normal www directory.

about 80% of the time they are accessed by other php scripts (internal to your site) using this:

I personally like to put in a connection.php file that holds all of the information to the database (host, username, password, etc). I also like to hold my security check for the host there as well... which looks something like this:


you can always get your host name by using

remember that a lot of ISPs are now using something like localhost:temp/mysql5.sock file for a little added security on your DB. just check with your ISP and they'll let you know.