Change MySQL's max_allowed_packet value

One of my junior developers was having a problem modifying this for me so I thought I would expand this in greater detail for linux users:
1) open terminal
2) ssh root@YOURIP
3) enter root password
4) nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf (if command is not recognized do this first or try vi then repeat: yum install nano )
5) add the line: max_allowed_packet=256M (obviously adjust size for whatever you need) under the [MYSQLD] section. He made a mistake of putting it at the bottom of the file first so it did not work.

set global net_buffer_length=1000000; 

set global max_allowed_packet=1000000000;