diff --git a/test/test_http_connection.cpp b/test/test_http_connection.cpp
index 898ec94d5..eedb0bfd9 100644
--- a/test/test_http_connection.cpp
+++ b/test/test_http_connection.cpp
@@ -197,7 +197,6 @@ int test_main()
 	TEST_CHECK(!ec);
 	if (ec) fprintf(stderr, "file error: %s\n", ec.message().c_str());
 	test_file.close();
-	std::system("gzip -9 -c test_file > test_file.gz");
 	
 	proxy_settings ps;
 	ps.hostname = "127.0.0.1";
diff --git a/test/web_server.py b/test/web_server.py
index d977471b3..02590423b 100644
--- a/test/web_server.py
+++ b/test/web_server.py
@@ -3,9 +3,16 @@ import SimpleHTTPServer
 import sys
 import os
 import ssl
+import gzip
 
 chunked_encoding = False
 
+fin = open('test_file', 'rb')
+f = gzip.open('test_file.gz', 'wb')
+f.writelines(fin)
+f.close()
+fin.close()
+
 class http_server_with_timeout(BaseHTTPServer.HTTPServer):
 	allow_reuse_address = True
 	timeout = 120