diff --git a/lib/protocol/protocol.go b/lib/protocol/protocol.go
index bed05c3a9..57a2661ed 100644
--- a/lib/protocol/protocol.go
+++ b/lib/protocol/protocol.go
@@ -540,7 +540,7 @@ func (c *rawConnection) readMessageAfterHeader(hdr Header, fourByteBuf []byte) (
 
 	// ... and is then unmarshalled
 
-	msg, err := c.newMessage(hdr.Type)
+	msg, err := newMessage(hdr.Type)
 	if err != nil {
 		BufferPool.Put(buf)
 		return nil, err
@@ -747,7 +747,7 @@ func (c *rawConnection) writeMessage(msg message) error {
 
 	size := msg.ProtoSize()
 	hdr := Header{
-		Type: c.typeOf(msg),
+		Type: typeOf(msg),
 	}
 	hdrSize := hdr.ProtoSize()
 	if hdrSize > 1<<16-1 {
@@ -765,7 +765,7 @@ func (c *rawConnection) writeMessage(msg message) error {
 	}
 
 	if c.shouldCompressMessage(msg) {
-		ok, err := c.writeCompressedMessage(msg, buf[overhead:], overhead)
+		ok, err := c.writeCompressedMessage(msg, buf[overhead:])
 		if ok {
 			return err
 		}
@@ -789,13 +789,13 @@ func (c *rawConnection) writeMessage(msg message) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Write msg out compressed, given its uncompressed marshaled payload and overhead.
+// Write msg out compressed, given its uncompressed marshaled payload.
 //
 // The first return value indicates whether compression succeeded.
 // If not, the caller should retry without compression.
-func (c *rawConnection) writeCompressedMessage(msg message, marshaled []byte, overhead int) (ok bool, err error) {
+func (c *rawConnection) writeCompressedMessage(msg message, marshaled []byte) (ok bool, err error) {
 	hdr := Header{
-		Type:        c.typeOf(msg),
+		Type:        typeOf(msg),
 		Compression: MessageCompressionLZ4,
 	}
 	hdrSize := hdr.ProtoSize()
@@ -804,13 +804,16 @@ func (c *rawConnection) writeCompressedMessage(msg message, marshaled []byte, ov
 	}
 
 	cOverhead := 2 + hdrSize + 4
-	maxCompressed := cOverhead + lz4.CompressBlockBound(len(marshaled))
+	// The compressed size may be at most n-n/32 = .96875*n bytes,
+	// I.e., if we can't save at least 3.125% bandwidth, we forgo compression.
+	// This number is arbitrary but cheap to compute.
+	maxCompressed := cOverhead + len(marshaled) - len(marshaled)/32
 	buf := BufferPool.Get(maxCompressed)
 	defer BufferPool.Put(buf)
 
 	compressedSize, err := lz4Compress(marshaled, buf[cOverhead:])
 	totSize := compressedSize + cOverhead
-	if err != nil || totSize >= len(marshaled)+overhead {
+	if err != nil {
 		return false, nil
 	}
 
@@ -831,7 +834,7 @@ func (c *rawConnection) writeCompressedMessage(msg message, marshaled []byte, ov
 	return true, nil
 }
 
-func (c *rawConnection) typeOf(msg message) MessageType {
+func typeOf(msg message) MessageType {
 	switch msg.(type) {
 	case *ClusterConfig:
 		return MessageTypeClusterConfig
@@ -854,7 +857,7 @@ func (c *rawConnection) typeOf(msg message) MessageType {
 	}
 }
 
-func (c *rawConnection) newMessage(t MessageType) (message, error) {
+func newMessage(t MessageType) (message, error) {
 	switch t {
 	case MessageTypeClusterConfig:
 		return new(ClusterConfig), nil
@@ -1014,16 +1017,16 @@ func (c *rawConnection) Statistics() Statistics {
 }
 
 func lz4Compress(src, buf []byte) (int, error) {
-	// The compressed block is prefixed by the size of the uncompressed data.
-	binary.BigEndian.PutUint32(buf, uint32(len(src)))
-
 	n, err := lz4.CompressBlock(src, buf[4:], nil)
 	if err != nil {
 		return -1, err
-	} else if len(src) > 0 && n == 0 {
+	} else if n == 0 {
 		return -1, errNotCompressible
 	}
 
+	// The compressed block is prefixed by the size of the uncompressed data.
+	binary.BigEndian.PutUint32(buf, uint32(len(src)))
+
 	return n + 4, nil
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/protocol/protocol_test.go b/lib/protocol/protocol_test.go
index 85e73011e..54e3ec70e 100644
--- a/lib/protocol/protocol_test.go
+++ b/lib/protocol/protocol_test.go
@@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ func TestWriteCompressed(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Error("received the wrong message")
 		}
 
-		hdr := Header{Type: c.typeOf(msg)}
+		hdr := Header{Type: typeOf(msg)}
 		size := int64(2 + hdr.ProtoSize() + 4 + msg.ProtoSize())
 		if c.cr.tot > size {
 			t.Errorf("compression enlarged message from %d to %d",