Large insert queries

Hi, I've got a problem while inserting a large blob to database. When the filesize is over 1 MB, the mysql server says it's gone away.. The code is more or less like this; $fp=fopen("datafile","r"); $data=fread($fp,filesize("datafile")); fclose($fp); $data=str_replace("'","''",$data); $data=str_replace("\\","\\\\",$data); $sql="insert into data(id,data) values (1,'$data')"; mysql_query($sql); The code works with, lets say, 900Kb files but when we go over megabyte the server dies. Does it take too long to write the insert clause to server or something like that? If this is the case, how to make it faster? -Timo