Lost connection to MySQL server during query

[Alec Smith]

Hi -

[Perhaps not exactly the right list, but perl@stripped doesn't
seem to be too active, so I'm hoping someone here might be able to offer
some insight.]

I'm getting the below error when trying to connect to a MySQL 4.0.12
server on RedHat 9 using a Perl script:

DBI connect('mailers:192.168.50.201','admin',...)
failed: Lost connection to MySQL server during query at ./dialer line 24
Can't call method "prepare" on an undefined value at ./dialer line 28.

The client machines are RH9 also, using the 3.23.56 libraries and clients
shipped with RedHat. Perl on RH9 is 5.8.0.

Any ideas where to start?

Thanks,
Alec