diff --git a/lib/MonetDBConnection.rb b/lib/MonetDBConnection.rb
index 3b8eb1f40fc797164c0c337dc18ec70bb720a13d..5333def3007f4ce52407c319986529e878d1dcbc 100644
--- a/lib/MonetDBConnection.rb
+++ b/lib/MonetDBConnection.rb
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ class MonetDBConnection
   @@HOUR                = 3600
 
   # maximum size (in bytes) for a monetdb message to be sent
-  @@MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE    = 8192
+  @@MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE    = 2048
   
   # endianness of a message sent to the server
   @@CLIENT_ENDIANNESS   = "BIG"