MySQL --max_allowed_packets?

[Sarteck]

Hey, everyone.

I have a large (100MB to 300MB) pdf file that I have to upload each week to display to certain customers. Since it's only able to be displayed to certain customers, I've chosen to place it in a MySQL database.

Unfortunately, I am getting an error: "Errno: 1153; Error: Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet' bytes"

Any way anyone know of to change the max_allowed_packets for MySQL?



[edit]
The only way I can think of to bypass this is to pull a news-server--i.e., split the file into chunks and toss it into several entries, and then take it back out and glue it back together when it's needed for download.

NOT a very elegant solution, though, so I'm still awaiting if anyone has a better idea.


[SOLVED] See below.

[Sarteck]

Dear Siteground users,

Fixed my problem. Turns out, the Print resolution we use, 600dpi (for a newspaper) turns out to be MUCH smaller when we use a regular Web resolution of 72dpi. The only loss of quality I can see is in the pictures (which still turn out fine on 11x17 paper, as we are a 12x24 tabloid-style paper), but the filesize shrank immensely, from 100+MB to about 5 and a half MB.

If anyone else encounters this problem, I hope this helps. I should have thought of it before.