Issue connecting an external postgres DB

[sipani909]

I have the following in my config file

 * Database configuration
 */
$conf['settings']['database']['type'] = 'pgsql';
$conf['settings']['database']['user'] = 'asipani';        // database user with permission to the booked database
$conf['settings']['database']['password'] = 'password!';
$conf['settings']['database']['hostspec'] = 'eng-testbed.asipani.io';        // ip, dns or named pipe
$conf['settings']['database']['name'] = 'testbed_devel';

However the homepage fails to load with these settings and eventually times out. Is there any way I can connect an external DB with a pre-defined schema of resources to booked?