Just for completeness, I chased up with helpdesk at ensembl.org and it seems the problem was that the database port had changed. I've just tried with the latest devel version of biomaRt and things are now working fine. Richard. Simon Anders wrote: > HJi Richard, > > Richard Pearson wrote: >> I've not been able to access biomaRt using the mysql interface this >> week. I'm seeing this both in release and devel. Is this a problem at >> the EBI end? If so, who should I contact? > > Have you checked whether the Biomart web site was available while you > had the problems? I'm asking because two hours ago, i.e., when you wrote > your mail, I could not get to the Ensembl web server either, i.e., they > seem to been experiencing problems. At the moment, it works, however. > > Simon > > -- Richard D. Pearson richard.pearson at postgrad.manchester.ac.uk School of Computer Science, http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~pearsonr University of Manchester, Tel: +44 161 275 6178 Oxford Road, Mob: +44 7971 221181 Manchester M13 9PL, UK. Fax: +44 161 275 6204