How can I compress my data to save bandwidth when sending across a socket?

The GZIPInputStream and GZIPOutputStream classes found in the java.util.zip package compress data with the GZIP file format, as defined by RFC 1952 (ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/zlib/zdoc-index.html).

See also http://cnrit.tamu.edu/sir_anodos/ for classes to use compression over a network stream. [User seems to have left university. Anyone know where it went?]