## Index → Modules → Encoders

## Encoder: Gzip

This is a compression encoder. It is used to reduce the outgoing bandwidth consumed by the server and speed up things for the client.

Remember that the encoding support is based on modules. If the configuration file tells the server to load a module, it will get it ready to use. Otherwise there won’t be any kind of support in memory.

A Compression Level can be optionally set within the range 0 to 9, where 0 is no compression, 1 best speed, and 9 is best compression.

For example, let’s see how it works when the encoder is configured to handle html files.

    $ wget -q -O - http://localhost/example.html

It works!

    $ wget -q -O - --header="Accept-encoding: gzip"  \
      http://localhost/example.html | gzip -dc -

It works!