Ping not working

[zhiephie]

I'm use 2 options for connect with ping, but not working

def __init__(self):
        if self._db_connection is None:
            self._db_connection = MySQLdb.connect(
                host=config.mysqlhost,
                user=config.mysqluser,
                passwd=config.mysqlpass,
                db=config.mysqldbnm
            )
            self._db_cur = self._db_connection.cursor()
        else:
            self._db_connection.ping(True)

def __open(self):
        try:
            if self.__connection is None:
                cnx = MySQLdb.connect(self.__host, self.__user,
                                    self.__password, self.__database)
                self.__connection = cnx
                self._db_cur = cnx.cursor()
            else:
                self.__connection.ping(True)

        except MySQLdb.Error as e:
           print "Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])