php - Localhost:3306; SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection refused

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Struggling with trying to get my localhost working again; I had it working briefly but when I attempted to adjust my.cnf to correct some MySQL parameters, it's completely died.

I'm new to running a local server to dev in, and new-ish to the command line. That said, I've tried MySQL Workbench + DBngin. Shows httpd, php, and mySQL all running(

Localhost itself is running but SQL itself doesn't seem to want to connect.

DBConn details:
$host = '127.0.0.1';
$user = 'root';
$pass = '';
$db = 'nbdesign_dportal';
$port = '3306';

Initially had PHP/SQL running on DBnging and using visualization tool, TablePlus. I've since tried to connect using MySQL Workbench, command line, etc. Nothing seems to want to connect. I've been crawling every resource online to try and fix this issue, but so far nothing has worked. When I attempt to connect via TablePlus, I get the error "Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)".

Any suggestions would be incredibly helpful. I'm at a complete loss and feeling defeated!

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