I'm having problems with tomcat connecting to a mysql database The following file works when placed in directory tests under tomcat's /usr/share/tomcat6/webapps/ROOT/tests directory <%@page language="java" contentType="text/html"%> <%@page import="java.sql.*"%> <html><head><title>JDBC test</title></head><body> <% Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"); Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection( "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/shop", "root", "password"); Statement stmt = conn.createStatement(); ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("select * from books"); %><table border= "1"><% ResultSetMetaData resMetaData = rs.getMetaData(); int nCols = resMetaData.getColumnCount(); %><tr><% for (int kCol = 1; kCol <= nCols; kCol++) { out.print("<td>" + resMetaData.getColumnName(kCol) + "</td>"); } %></tr><% while (rs.next()) { %><tr><% for (int kCol = 1; kCol <= nCols; kCol++) { out.print("<td>" + rs.getString(kCol) + "</td>"); } %></tr><% } %></table><% conn.close(); %> </body></html> and accessed as <a href="http://localhost:8080/tests/jdbc.jsp">http://localhost:8080/tests/jdbc.jsp</a> However, if I deploy a war file with the following web.xml file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5" xmlns="<a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee">http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee</a>" xmlns:xsi="<a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance</a>" xsi:schemaLocation="<a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee">http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee</a> <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_5.xsd">http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_5.xsd</a>"> <display-name>eshop</display-name> <servlet> <description> </description> <display-name>ShopServlet</display-name> <servlet-name>ShopServlet</servlet-name> <servlet-class>eshop.ShopServlet</servlet-class> <init-param> <param-name>base</param-name> <param-value>/eshop/shop</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>imageURL</param-name> <param-value>/eshop/images/</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>jdbcDriver</param-name> <param-value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>dbURL</param-name> <param-value>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/shop</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>dbUserName</param-name> <param-value>root</param-value> </init-param> <init-param> <param-name>dbPassword</param-name> <param-value>password</param-value> </init-param> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>ShopServlet</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/shop/*</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> </web-app> I get the following error: Could not connect to DB: No suitable driver found for I've searched the various forums on mysql and I see this problem reported many times before, but was never able to find and answer. Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks, Paolo