"MySQL server has gone away" Error

I having some trouble with this and would appreciate someones help.

I have a script that allows users to upload pictures. The script puts the pictures in a blob in MySQL. The script works fine - I have tested it numerous times with relatively small files.

However, when I upload a larger file (above 1MB) I get the "MySQL server has gone away" error.

Ive looked up the error in the MySQL documentation and found this:
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If you need big queries (for example, if you are working with big BLOB columns), you can increase the query limit by starting mysqld with the -O max_allowed_packet=# option (default 1M).
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Now, I am using MySQL on a server provided by a shared hoster (Interland). I dont know much about the innards of MySQL. Can I still do this? If not, is there some way around this?

Thanks a lot for any help.

Joe

I'd have the image files be saved as actual files rather than mysql.

I use Perl. I ran into the same problem. I am not sure whether the 1 MB is for the entire data for the row or just the BLOB column. In any case, I got around the problem by reducing the size of the image using PerlMagick before storing the image. This may not be a solution if you wish to retain the size of the image.