diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 265f17f..e43b0f9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1 @@
-DS_Store
+.DS_Store
diff --git a/lib/exceptional.js b/lib/exceptional.js
index f9046e0..c27c484 100644
--- a/lib/exceptional.js
+++ b/lib/exceptional.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 var HTTP = require('http');
-var gzip = require('./gzip').gzip;
+var zlib = require('zlib');
 var fs = require('fs');
 
 var Exceptional = {
@@ -57,27 +57,57 @@ var Exceptional = {
   },
 
   send_error: function(doc) {
-    gzip(doc, 1, function(err, data) {
-
-      var client  = HTTP.createClient(Exceptional.Port, Exceptional.Host);
+    if(!Buffer.isBuffer(doc))
+      doc = new Buffer(doc);
+    
+    zlib.gzip(doc, function (err, data) {
+      var path = '/api/errors?api_key=' + Exceptional.API_KEY + "&protocol_version=" + Exceptional.PROTOCOL_VERSION;
+      var request = null;
 
       var headers = {
         'Host' : Exceptional.Host,
-        'Content-Length' : data.length
+        'Content-Length' : data.length,
+        'Content-Type'  : 'application/json; charset=UTF-8'
       };
 
-      var request = client.request('POST', '/api/errors?api_key=' + Exceptional.API_KEY + "&protocol_version=" + Exceptional.PROTOCOL_VERSION, headers);
+      // use feature detection to fallback to deprecated
+      if (!HTTP.request)
+      {
+        // older versions of nodejs use http.createClient
+        var client  = HTTP.createClient(Exceptional.Port, Exceptional.Host);
+        request = client.request('POST', path, headers);
+
+        request.on('response', function (response) {
+          if (response.statusCode === 200) {
+            if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error data successfully sent to " + Exceptional.Host + ':' + Exceptional.Port );
+          } else {
+            if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error sending to " + Exceptional.Host + ":" + Exceptional.Port + " :" + response.statusCode);
+          }
+        });
+      } 
+      else
+      {
+        // newer versions of nodejs use http.request
+        var options = {
+          host: Exceptional.Host,
+          port: Exceptional.Port,
+          path: path,
+          method: 'POST',
+          header: headers
+        };
+
+        request = HTTP.request(options, function(response) {
+          if (response.statusCode === 200) {
+            if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error data successfully sent to " + Exceptional.Host + ':' + Exceptional.Port );
+          } else {
+            if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error sending to " + Exceptional.Host + ":" + Exceptional.Port + " :" + response.statusCode);
+          }
+        });
+      }
 
+      // post the data
       request.write(data);
       request.end();
-
-      request.on('response', function (response) {
-        if (response.statusCode === 200) {
-          if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error data successfully sent to exceptional");
-        } else {
-          if (Exceptional.VERBOSE) console.log("Error sending to api.getexceptional.com :" + response.statusCode);
-        }
-      });
     });
   }
 };
diff --git a/lib/gzip/index.js b/lib/gzip/index.js
deleted file mode 100644
index bb848c5..0000000
--- a/lib/gzip/index.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
-var spawn = require('child_process').spawn,
-    buffer = require('buffer').Buffer;
-
-exports.gzip = function(data) {
-  var rate = 8,
-      enc = 'utf8',
-      isBuffer = buffer.isBuffer(data),
-      args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1),
-      callback;
-
-  if (!isBuffer && typeof args[0] === 'string') {
-    enc = args.shift();
-  }
-
-  if (typeof args[0] === 'number') {
-    rate = args.shift() - 0;
-  }
-
-  callback = args[0];
-
-  if (!callback) return;
-
-  var gzip = spawn('gzip', ['-' + (rate-0),'-c', '-']);
-
-  var output = new buffer(0);
-
-  gzip.stdout.on('data', function(data) {
-    output = data;
-  });
-
-  gzip.on('exit', function(code) {
-    callback(code, output);
-  });
-
-  if (isBuffer) {
-    gzip.stdin.encoding = 'binary';
-    gzip.stdin.end(data.length ? data: '');
-  } else {
-    gzip.stdin.end(data ? data.toString() : '', enc);
-  }
-};
\ No newline at end of file