Port forwarding without SSH (no replies)

Hello everybody,
i am having some troubles configuring the port forwarding for my msql server.
I had one server running on a computer in my office, now i got a new server machine, installed the mysql server there and deleted the old port forwardings from the wireless router - added new forwarding for UDP/TCP 3306 to the IP address of the new server machine... But - the connection cannot be established, i remember that one had to have an ssh connection but i swear - i had a solution with the old server NOT requiring any SSH tunnels - i think it was part of the route config but i am not sure... Can someone think of what i could have done to avoid the SSH connection? I cannot let my users establish SSH first, also using C# i want to use a direct connection, it must be possible somehow - can someone help me please?

Thanks in advance!

I think the problem is solved (I turned off the windows firewall and it worked)
I checked on the old server (firewall was off there too)... Maybe i can allow mysql to go through the firewall..