Форум пользователей MySQL

очень прошу помочь
на VDS установлена mysql, запускаю программу (там же, на VDS),  которая должна работать с клиентами и постоянно обмениваться данными с базой. загрузка драйвера проходит нормально. но при любых обращениях к бд вызывается исключение

com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure

самое непонятное то, что один раз все заработало, но минут на 10 и снова перестало. база находится на том же хосте что и программа, подключаюсь так:

con = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/myDB?user=worker&password=secret");

весь стэктрэйс:

com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.jdbc4.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure

The last packet sent successfully to the server was 0 milliseconds ago. The driver has not received any packets from the server.
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:407)
at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createCommunicationsException(SQLError.java:1116)
at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.<init>(MysqlIO.java:346)
at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.coreConnect(ConnectionImpl.java:2334)
at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.connectOneTryOnly(ConnectionImpl.java:2371)
at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.createNewIO(ConnectionImpl.java:2163)
at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.<init>(ConnectionImpl.java:794)
at com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4Connection.<init>(JDBC4Connection.java:47)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:407)
at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getInstance(ConnectionImpl.java:378)
at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:305)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
at b.a.e(Unknown Source)
at b.a.e(Unknown Source)
at b.a.b(Unknown Source)
at c.a.c.b.f.b(Unknown Source)
at c.a.c.b.g.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(Unknown Source)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Unknown Source)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Unknown Source)
at com.mysql.jdbc.StandardSocketFactory.connect(StandardSocketFactory.java:254)
at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.<init>(MysqlIO.java:295)
... 19 more