Disable HTTP compression on Apache servers

This article explains how to check if your Apache® server is compressing HTTP. It also explains how to disable the compression.

Testing your server for HTTP compression

1. Connect to the server using OpenSSL.

2. Add the following request to the header to check for HTTP compression:

   Accept-Encoding:compress,gzip
   

If you enable compression, the server responds by compressing the page. If the server does not support compression, it displays the page in plain text.

Disabling HTTP compression by using Ubuntu or Debian operating systems

To disable the compression by using the Ubuntu® operating system or Debian®, use the following steps:

1. Disable the module mod_deflate by using the following command:

   $ sudo a2dismod deflate
   

2. Restart the server:

   $ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
   

Disabling HTTP compression by using Red Hat or CentOS operating system

To disable the compression by using Red Hat® or CentOS®, use the following steps:

1. Access the main configuraton file:

   $ sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
   

2. Comment out the following line:

   LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
   

3. Restart the server:

   $ sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart
   

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