diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/ChunkedResponse.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/ChunkedResponse.java
index a67b40e..b3a7587 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/ChunkedResponse.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/ChunkedResponse.java
@@ -23,13 +23,13 @@
 import java.io.PrintWriter;
 
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.api.IServletResponse;
+import org.apache.hyracks.http.server.utils.HttpUtil;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Level;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 
 import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelFuture;
-import io.netty.channel.ChannelFutureListener;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultFullHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultHttpResponse;
@@ -37,9 +37,7 @@
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderNames;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderValues;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaders;
-import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpResponseStatus;
-import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpUtil;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpVersion;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.LastHttpContent;
 
@@ -65,12 +63,11 @@
     private final ChannelHandlerContext ctx;
     private final ChunkedNettyOutputStream outputStream;
     private final PrintWriter writer;
-    private HttpResponse response;
+    private DefaultHttpResponse response;
     private boolean headerSent;
     private ByteBuf error;
     private ChannelFuture future;
     private boolean done;
-    private final boolean keepAlive;
 
     public ChunkedResponse(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, FullHttpRequest request, int chunkSize) {
         this.ctx = ctx;
@@ -78,9 +75,7 @@
         writer = new PrintWriter(outputStream);
         response = new DefaultHttpResponse(HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpResponseStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
         response.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.TRANSFER_ENCODING, HttpHeaderValues.CHUNKED);
-        keepAlive = HttpUtil.isKeepAlive(request);
-        response.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.CONNECTION,
-                keepAlive ? HttpHeaderValues.KEEP_ALIVE : HttpHeaderValues.CLOSE);
+        HttpUtil.setConnectionHeader(request, response);
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/FullResponse.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/FullResponse.java
index 1d28472..55bbd30 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/FullResponse.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/FullResponse.java
@@ -24,26 +24,23 @@
 import java.io.PrintWriter;
 
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.api.IServletResponse;
+import org.apache.hyracks.http.server.utils.HttpUtil;
 
 import io.netty.buffer.Unpooled;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelFuture;
-import io.netty.channel.ChannelFutureListener;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultFullHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.FullHttpRequest;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.FullHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderNames;
-import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderValues;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpResponseStatus;
-import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpUtil;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpVersion;
 
 public class FullResponse implements IServletResponse {
     private final ChannelHandlerContext ctx;
     private final ByteArrayOutputStream baos;
     private final PrintWriter writer;
-    private final FullHttpResponse response;
-    private final boolean keepAlive;
+    private final DefaultFullHttpResponse response;
     private ChannelFuture future;
 
     public FullResponse(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, FullHttpRequest request) {
@@ -51,27 +48,15 @@
         baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
         writer = new PrintWriter(baos);
         response = new DefaultFullHttpResponse(HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpResponseStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
-        keepAlive = HttpUtil.isKeepAlive(request);
-        if (keepAlive) {
-            response.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.CONNECTION, HttpHeaderValues.KEEP_ALIVE);
-        }
+        HttpUtil.setConnectionHeader(request, response);
     }
 
     @Override
     public void close() throws IOException {
         writer.close();
         FullHttpResponse fullResponse = response.replace(Unpooled.copiedBuffer(baos.toByteArray()));
-        if (keepAlive) {
-            if (response.status() == HttpResponseStatus.OK || response.status() == HttpResponseStatus.UNAUTHORIZED) {
-                fullResponse.headers().setInt(HttpHeaderNames.CONTENT_LENGTH, fullResponse.content().readableBytes());
-            } else {
-                fullResponse.headers().remove(HttpHeaderNames.CONNECTION);
-            }
-        }
+        fullResponse.headers().setInt(HttpHeaderNames.CONTENT_LENGTH, fullResponse.content().readableBytes());
         future = ctx.writeAndFlush(fullResponse);
-        if (response.status() != HttpResponseStatus.OK && response.status() != HttpResponseStatus.UNAUTHORIZED) {
-            future.addListener(ChannelFutureListener.CLOSE);
-        }
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/HttpServerHandler.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/HttpServerHandler.java
index baa664a..36d79f3 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/HttpServerHandler.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/HttpServerHandler.java
@@ -30,13 +30,16 @@
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
 
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelFuture;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelFutureListener;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelHandlerContext;
 import io.netty.channel.SimpleChannelInboundHandler;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultFullHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.FullHttpRequest;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderNames;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequest;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpResponseStatus;
-import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpVersion;
 
 public class HttpServerHandler<T extends HttpServer> extends SimpleChannelInboundHandler<Object> {
 
@@ -92,13 +95,18 @@
             }
         } catch (Exception e) {
             LOGGER.log(Level.WARN, "Failure Submitting HTTP Request", e);
-            respond(ctx, request.protocolVersion(), new HttpResponseStatus(500, e.getMessage()));
+            respond(ctx, request, HttpResponseStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
         }
     }
 
-    protected void respond(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, HttpVersion httpVersion, HttpResponseStatus status) {
-        DefaultHttpResponse response = new DefaultHttpResponse(httpVersion, status);
-        ctx.writeAndFlush(response).addListener(ChannelFutureListener.CLOSE);
+    protected void respond(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, HttpRequest request, HttpResponseStatus status) {
+        final DefaultHttpResponse response = new DefaultFullHttpResponse(request.protocolVersion(), status);
+        response.headers().setInt(HttpHeaderNames.CONTENT_LENGTH, 0);
+        HttpUtil.setConnectionHeader(request, response);
+        final ChannelFuture clientChannel = ctx.writeAndFlush(response);
+        if (!io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpUtil.isKeepAlive(request)) {
+            clientChannel.addListener(ChannelFutureListener.CLOSE);
+        }
     }
 
     private void submit(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, IServlet servlet, FullHttpRequest request) throws IOException {
@@ -107,7 +115,7 @@
             servletRequest = HttpUtil.toServletRequest(request);
         } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
             LOGGER.log(Level.WARN, "Failure Decoding Request", e);
-            respond(ctx, request.protocolVersion(), HttpResponseStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
+            respond(ctx, request, HttpResponseStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
             return;
         }
         handler = new HttpRequestHandler(ctx, servlet, servletRequest, chunkSize);
@@ -128,7 +136,7 @@
         if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
             LOGGER.debug("No servlet for " + request.uri());
         }
-        respond(ctx, request.protocolVersion(), HttpResponseStatus.NOT_FOUND);
+        respond(ctx, request, HttpResponseStatus.NOT_FOUND);
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
index 8d6dfbc..b0249fb 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/main/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/server/utils/HttpUtil.java
@@ -30,9 +30,12 @@
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.server.BaseRequest;
 import org.apache.hyracks.http.server.FormUrlEncodedRequest;
 
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultHttpResponse;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.FullHttpRequest;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderNames;
+import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpHeaderValues;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequest;
+import io.netty.util.AsciiString;
 
 public class HttpUtil {
     private static final Pattern PARENT_DIR = Pattern.compile("/[^./]+/\\.\\./");
@@ -154,4 +157,9 @@
         return clusterURL;
     }
 
+    public static void setConnectionHeader(HttpRequest request, DefaultHttpResponse response) {
+        final boolean keepAlive = io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpUtil.isKeepAlive(request);
+        final AsciiString connectionHeaderValue = keepAlive ? HttpHeaderValues.KEEP_ALIVE : HttpHeaderValues.CLOSE;
+        response.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.CONNECTION, connectionHeaderValue);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/test/HttpServerTest.java b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/test/HttpServerTest.java
index 6b8b51a..c1d1315 100644
--- a/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/test/HttpServerTest.java
+++ b/hyracks-fullstack/hyracks/hyracks-http/src/test/java/org/apache/hyracks/http/test/HttpServerTest.java
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@
                 pw.flush();
                 BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(s.getInputStream()));
                 String line;
-                while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
+                while ((line = br.readLine()) != null && !line.isEmpty()) {
                     response.append(line).append('\n');
                 }
                 br.close();