diff --git a/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/BaseHttpServer.cs b/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/BaseHttpServer.cs
index 2f7b5499d2..28324a5ad6 100644
--- a/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/BaseHttpServer.cs
+++ b/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/BaseHttpServer.cs
@@ -833,7 +833,7 @@ namespace OpenSim.Framework.Servers.HttpServer
 
             Stream inputStream = Util.Copy(request.InputStream);
 
-            if (request.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip")
+            if ((request.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip") || (request.Headers["X-Content-Encoding"] == "gzip"))
                 inputStream = new GZipStream(inputStream, System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Decompress);
 
             using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inputStream, Encoding.UTF8))
@@ -978,6 +978,9 @@ namespace OpenSim.Framework.Servers.HttpServer
         {
             Stream requestStream = request.InputStream;
 
+            if ((request.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip") || (request.Headers["X-Content-Encoding"] == "gzip"))
+                requestStream = new GZipStream(requestStream, System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Decompress);
+
             Encoding encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
             StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(requestStream, encoding);
 
diff --git a/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/OSHttpRequest.cs b/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/OSHttpRequest.cs
index f36cbbc148..05ec6dc8c4 100644
--- a/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/OSHttpRequest.cs
+++ b/OpenSim/Framework/Servers/HttpServer/OSHttpRequest.cs
@@ -181,12 +181,23 @@ namespace OpenSim.Framework.Servers.HttpServer
             _request = req;
             _context = context;
 
-            if ((null != req.Headers["content-encoding"]) && ("gzip" != req.Headers["content-encoding"]))
-                _contentEncoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(_request.Headers["content-encoding"]);
+            if (null != req.Headers["content-encoding"])
+            {
+                try
+                {
+                    _contentEncoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(_request.Headers["content-encoding"]);
+                }
+                catch (Exception)
+                {
+                    // ignore
+                }
+            }
+            
             if (null != req.Headers["content-type"])
                 _contentType = _request.Headers["content-type"];
             if (null != req.Headers["user-agent"])
                 _userAgent = req.Headers["user-agent"];
+            
             if (null != req.Headers["remote_addr"])
             {
                 try
diff --git a/OpenSim/Framework/WebUtil.cs b/OpenSim/Framework/WebUtil.cs
index 3972c06a5c..eb3633a95a 100644
--- a/OpenSim/Framework/WebUtil.cs
+++ b/OpenSim/Framework/WebUtil.cs
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ namespace OpenSim.Framework
                     
                     if (compressed)
                     {
-                        request.Headers["Content-Encoding"] = "gzip";
+                        request.Headers["X-Content-Encoding"] = "gzip"; // can't set "Content-Encoding" because old OpenSims fail if they get an unrecognized Content-Encoding
 
                         using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
                         {
diff --git a/OpenSim/Server/Handlers/Simulation/AgentHandlers.cs b/OpenSim/Server/Handlers/Simulation/AgentHandlers.cs
index 1254df4878..9c7f17e1b2 100644
--- a/OpenSim/Server/Handlers/Simulation/AgentHandlers.cs
+++ b/OpenSim/Server/Handlers/Simulation/AgentHandlers.cs
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ namespace OpenSim.Server.Handlers.Simulation
             }
 
             Stream inputStream = request;
-            if (httpRequest.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip")
+            if ((httpRequest.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip") || (httpRequest.Headers["X-Content-Encoding"] == "gzip"))
                 inputStream = new GZipStream(inputStream, CompressionMode.Decompress);
 
             StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(inputStream, encoding);
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ namespace OpenSim.Server.Handlers.Simulation
             keysvals.Add("querystringkeys", querystringkeys);
 
             Stream inputStream = request;
-            if (httpRequest.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip")
+            if ((httpRequest.Headers["Content-Encoding"] == "gzip") || (httpRequest.Headers["X-Content-Encoding"] == "gzip"))
                 inputStream = new GZipStream(inputStream, CompressionMode.Decompress);
 
             Encoding encoding = Encoding.UTF8;