diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 30ff6dd0..bd8fb753 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Version 2.1.1 (2012-10-17 09:13:38) dev
+Version 2.1.1 (2012-10-17 12:04:15) dev
diff --git a/gluon/globals.py b/gluon/globals.py
index 18b78321..d601b65e 100644
--- a/gluon/globals.py
+++ b/gluon/globals.py
@@ -470,6 +470,7 @@ class Session(Storage):
         check_client=False,
         cookie_key=None,
         cookie_expires=None,
+        compression_level=None
         ):
         """
         separate can be separate=lambda(session_name): session_name[-2:]
@@ -507,8 +508,9 @@ class Session(Storage):
         if cookie_key:
             response.session_storage_type = 'cookie'
             response.session_cookie_key = cookie_key
+            response.session_cookie_compression_level = compression_level
             if session_cookie_data:
-                data = secure_loads(session_cookie_data,cookie_key)
+                data = secure_loads(session_cookie_data,cookie_key,compression_level=compression_level)
                 if data:
                     self.update(data)
         # else if we are supposed to use file based sessions
@@ -652,7 +654,7 @@ class Session(Storage):
     def _try_store_in_cookie(self, request, response):
         if response.session_storage_type!='cookie': return False
         name = response.session_data_name
-        value = secure_dumps(dict(self),response.session_cookie_key)
+        value = secure_dumps(dict(self),response.session_cookie_key, compression_level=response.session_cookie_compression_level)
         expires = response.session_cookie_expires
         rcookies = response.cookies 
         rcookies.pop(name,None)            
diff --git a/gluon/utils.py b/gluon/utils.py
index a160cc6e..ecc957bc 100644
--- a/gluon/utils.py
+++ b/gluon/utils.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import logging
 import socket
 import cPickle
 import base64
+import zlib
 
 try:
     from Crypto.Cipher import AES
@@ -105,17 +106,19 @@ DIGEST_ALG_BY_SIZE = {
 def pad(s,n=32,padchar='.'):
     return s + (32 - len(s) % 32) * padchar
 
-def secure_dumps(data,encryption_key,hash_key=None):
+def secure_dumps(data,encryption_key,hash_key=None,compression_level=None):
     if not hash_key:
         hash_key = hashlib.sha1(encryption_key).hexdigest()
     dump = cPickle.dumps(data)
+    if compression_level:
+        dump = zlib.compress(dump, compression_level)
     key = pad(encryption_key[:32])
-    cipher = AES.new(key,IV=key)
-    encrypted_data = base64.b16encode(cipher.encrypt(pad(dump)))
+    cipher = AES.new(key,IV=key[:16])
+    encrypted_data = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(cipher.encrypt(pad(dump)))
     signature = hmac.new(hash_key,encrypted_data).hexdigest()
     return signature+':'+encrypted_data
 
-def secure_loads(data,encryption_key,hash_key=None):
+def secure_loads(data,encryption_key,hash_key=None, compression_level=None):
     if not ':' in data:
         return None
     if not hash_key:
@@ -125,10 +128,12 @@ def secure_loads(data,encryption_key,hash_key=None):
     if signature!=actual_signature:
         return None
     key = pad(encryption_key[:32])
-    cipher = AES.new(key,IV=key)
+    cipher = AES.new(key,IV=key[:16])
     try:
-        data = cipher.decrypt(base64.b16decode(encrypted_data))
+        data = cipher.decrypt(base64.urlsafe_b64decode(encrypted_data))
         data = data.rstrip(' ')
+        if compression_level:
+            data = zlib.decompress(data)
         return cPickle.loads(data)
     except (TypeError,cPickle.UnpicklingError):
         return None