MySQL server has gone away

[dealbyethan.com]

Hi

I was just trying to log in to my admin and after I put in the details I get this error. What does it mean? How do I fix it?

2006 MySQL server has gone away
in:
[select * from zen_coupon_gv_queue where release_flag='N']
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.

[ajcannon]

I had that exact error for a while and would just "refresh" the admin page and it would go away. Eventually my host did a server upgrade and it fixed it and I haven't seen it since. It is important to note that I never once saw this error on the customer side of my site - only admin. And it did not appear to cause any problems other than it being a minor annoyance. Also, I did notice that it seemed to happen when I was doing lots of work on the site - i.e. refreshing the admin page (or loading a new admin page) pretty often.

But like I said, mine eventually quit after my server was upgraded and I never noticed a problem with it anyways.