Too many connections

Below is my problem... Can anyone explain how I can change the max_connections variable to 500? MySQL Doc's ---------------- If you get the error Too many connections when you try to connect to MySQL, this means that there is already max_connections clients connected to the mysqld server. If you need more connections than the default (100), then you should restart mysqld with a bigger value for the max_connections variable. Note that mysqld actually allows (max_connections+1) clients to connect. The last connection is reserved for a user with the process privilege. By not giving this privilege to normal users (they shouldn't need this), an administrator with this privilege can log in and use SHOW PROCESSLIST to find out what could be wrong. See section 7.28 SHOW Syntax (Get Information About Tables, Columns,...). The maximum number of connects MySQL is depending on how good the thread library is on a given platform. Linux or Solaris should be able to support 500-1000 simultaneous connections, depending on how much RAM you have and what your clients are doing.