Eclipse 3.1.2 and JDBC

I'm trying to connect a servlet application I made to a database. In theory it should be easy all I have to do is:

1. Download the JDBC driver from the mysql download page
2. Unzip it somewhere
3. Install the driver on my project build path by right clicking the project name->selecting "build path" -> "Configure build path"-> the libraries tab and "add external jars"
4. click ok and the jar should be loaded

However this doesn't work.

So after spending a few hours googling I discovered that if I add the jar file to "lib/ext" close, Eclipse then reopen it the jar file loads. I also have to remove the port number from the url.