setup hostname password (fedora 9)

i follow up:
http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual_hosting_with_proftpd_and_mysql_fedora7

when i do this:
mysqladmin -h localhost.localdomain -u root password XXXXX

i get:

mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost.localdomain' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'

What is going wrong?

 

What's the output of

Code:

netstat -tap

?
What's in /etc/hosts?