Very slow to hook up to MySQL db

[joseph corner]

Hi all,
I have a java web app which connects to a MySQL database, using a datasource which i have defined in tomcat's server.xml, DefaultContext tag, as follows:

<Resource name="jdbc/BLOGDB"
               auth="Container"
               type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
 
  <ResourceParams name="jdbc/BLOGDB">
    <parameter>
      <name>factory</name>
      <value>org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSourceFactory</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- Maximum number of dB connections in pool. Make sure you
         configure your mysqld max_connections large enough to handle
         all of your db connections. Set to 0 for no limit.
         -->
    <parameter>
      <name>maxActive</name>
      <value>100</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- Maximum number of idle dB connections to retain in pool.
         Set to -1 for no limit.  See also the DBCP documentation on this
         and the minEvictableIdleTimeMillis configuration parameter.
         -->
    <parameter>
      <name>maxIdle</name>
      <value>30</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- Maximum time to wait for a dB connection to become available
         in ms, in this example 10 seconds. An Exception is thrown if
         this timeout is exceeded.  Set to -1 to wait indefinitely.
         -->
    <parameter>
      <name>maxWait</name>
      <value>10000</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- MySQL dB username and password for dB connections  -->
    <parameter>
     <name>username</name>
     <value>myusername</value>
    </parameter>
    <parameter>
     <name>password</name>
     <value>mypass</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- Class name for the old mm.mysql JDBC driver - uncomment this entry and comment next
         if you want to use this driver - we recommend using Connector/J though
    <parameter>
       <name>driverClassName</name>
       <value>org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver</value>
    </parameter>
     -->
 
    <!-- Class name for the official MySQL Connector/J driver -->
    <parameter>
       <name>driverClassName</name>
       <value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</value>
    </parameter>
 
    <!-- The JDBC connection url for connecting to your MySQL dB.
         The autoReconnect=true argument to the url makes sure that the
         mm.mysql JDBC Driver will automatically reconnect if mysqld closed the
         connection.  mysqld by default closes idle connections after 8 hours.
         -->
    <parameter>
      <name>url</name>
      <value>jdbc:mysql://195.195.xx.xxx:3306/dbname</value>
    </parameter>
  </ResourceParams>

When I restart the web server with the java app, the connection works without problems. If I then go away and come back an hour later, and try to connect to the db again in my web app, it takes aaaaages to connect to the db. It doesn't time out, it just takes a looong time to connect and display the page with the results. (10 mins?) I am closing all my resultsets, statements and connections in my servlet code.
Once the connection is finally made, the web app seems to run OK. Any ideas what might be wrong?

Thanks.
[ March 15, 2007: Message edited by: joseph corner ]