Configured - and now?

[Alexander Aleshnikov]

I first worked with PHP5 (with Apache 2.2) when I noticed that I need MySQL.
So i downloaded MySQL 5.1 and followed the instruction for the installation and instance configuration wizard thingy.
Then I went into PHP and tried to connect. Didn't work, maybe a stupid thing to do?

Well then I tried to get help and somebody told me I should use MySQLi. To do this I should uncomment a php_mysqli file in php.ini, but it wasn't there.

I just want to be able to use MySQL with PHP. Is that so hard?
Port 3306 is open and firewall isn't blocking it. extension_loaded('mysqli') = false

Hope I gave all the information I need to give - I looked through all sorts of guides but no really helped me.

Thank you for any advice!

Alex