Can't get WordPress working with Mac ;-(

Hi there.

I’m new to website building. I am blog literate. I have bought webspace with Lunarpages. I have downloaded the MAMP application in order to run WordPress.

I can get to the configuration page where you need to link all your host information to wordpress, but sadly, when I enter it I get an error message stating:

“This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at 74.50.13.226. This could mean your host’s database server is down.”

I’ve contacted lunar pages and they’re no so helpful. My default host is actually 216.227.214.97 and when I put that in I get a 1-minute wait before a failure message. They told me to use 74.50.13.226, but this brings an immediate failure.

Can anyone help me on this please?

Kind regards,

Johnny M