Weird errors

[dzeanah]

A few times a day I get these errors:

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.0:

Invalid SQL:

SELECT post.postid, post.threadid

FROM post AS post
INNER JOIN thread AS thread ON(thread.threadid = post.threadid)
WHERE post.postid
IN(snipped -- list make message over 2 megs in size
AND post.visible = 1; MySQL Error : Got a packet bigger than 'max_allowed_packet'
Error Number : 1153
Date : Tuesday, October 18th 2005 @ 07:40:41 AM
Script : http://thehighroad.org/search.php
Referrer : http://thehighroad.org/search.php?se...1&pp=25&page=3
IP Address : 205.188.116.135
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vb_database

That address resolves to a cache at AOL that more than 50 of our users have come through at least one time, so I don't want to ban it.

Any idea what I can do to reduce the numbers of this error?

[Zachery]

Well somthing setoff your bigger than max_allowed_packet...

Looks like a search with a large result

Up the max allowed packet to a realistic limit.

[dzeanah]

Thanks.

What's considered a "reasonable limit?" Before this, I would have thought a 2 megabyte SQL query was outside of reasonable for a forum...

[Zachery]

max_packet_size for me is generally around 8-16mb, remember that anything going into the database could be large, including returned search results.

[dzeanah]

Thanks!