"MySQL server has gone away"

[Chris Miller]

I keep getting this error:   DBD::mysql::st execute failed: MySQL server has gone away at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.6.1/Mysql.pm line 175.   I am using mod_perl 1.29, Apache 1.3.27 and MySQL 4.0.18. This happens about once every 2-3 days. To fix it, I just restart Apache. It is DEFINTLY an Apache/mod_perl problem, NOT a MySQL problem. Also, in an effort to try to fix it I increased the “wait_timeout” of MySQL to a much higher value then the default 8 hours.   Can anyone help me?   Thanks,   Chris Miller