problem with dumpfile use with mysql

[admin]

Please help me with using a dumpfile to add data to a table. I'm quite new to this.

I have tried the following commands to get the dumpfile data into a mysql database:

mysql -u username -p database < dumpfile;
mysql -u username database -p <;
mysql -u username database -p < dumpfile;
mysql -u username -p password database <;
mysql -u username -p password database < dumpfile;

I keep getting the error:
ERROR 1064: You have an error in your SQL syntax near '(insert any command above)' at line 1.

The dumpfile is named: dumpfile (no extension)
The dumpfile is located on the desktop.
I'm using windows 98, mysql 3.22.34-shareware-debug