diff --git a/http2-client-grpc.cabal b/http2-client-grpc.cabal
--- a/http2-client-grpc.cabal
+++ b/http2-client-grpc.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                http2-client-grpc
-version:             0.4.0.0
+version:             0.5.0.0
 synopsis:            Implement gRPC-over-HTTP2 clients.
 description:         Uses http2-client and proto-lens to generate client code.
 homepage:            https://github.com/lucasdicioccio/http2-client-grpc#readme
@@ -18,12 +18,14 @@
   exposed-modules:     Network.GRPC.Client
                      , Network.GRPC.Client.Helpers
   build-depends:       base >= 4.7 && < 5
+                     , async
                      , binary
                      , bytestring
+                     , case-insensitive
                      , data-default-class
                      , http2
                      , http2-client
-                     , http2-grpc-types >= 0.2
+                     , http2-grpc-types >= 0.3
                      , proto-lens
                      , proto-lens-protoc
                      , text
diff --git a/src/Network/GRPC/Client.hs b/src/Network/GRPC/Client.hs
--- a/src/Network/GRPC/Client.hs
+++ b/src/Network/GRPC/Client.hs
@@ -31,12 +31,14 @@
   ) where
 
 import Control.Exception (Exception(..), throwIO)
-import Data.Monoid ((<>))
 import Data.ByteString.Char8 (unpack)
 import Data.ByteString.Lazy (toStrict)
 import Data.Binary.Builder (toLazyByteString)
 import Data.Binary.Get (Decoder(..), pushChunk, pushEndOfInput)
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as ByteString
+import Data.CaseInsensitive (CI)
+import qualified Data.CaseInsensitive as CI
+import Data.Monoid ((<>))
 import Data.ProtoLens.Service.Types (Service(..), HasMethod, HasMethodImpl(..), StreamingType(..))
 import GHC.TypeLits (Symbol)
 
@@ -47,6 +49,8 @@
 import Network.HTTP2.Client
 import Network.HTTP2.Client.Helpers
 
+type CIHeaderList = [(CI ByteString.ByteString, ByteString.ByteString)]
+
 -- | A reply.
 --
 -- This reply object contains a lot of information because a single gRPC call
@@ -57,7 +61,7 @@
 -- - 1st item: initial HTTP2 response
 -- - 2nd item: second (trailers) HTTP2 response
 -- - 3rd item: proper gRPC answer
-type RawReply a = Either ErrorCode (HeaderList, Maybe HeaderList, (Either String a))
+type RawReply a = Either ErrorCode (CIHeaderList, Maybe CIHeaderList, (Either String a))
 
 -- | gRPC disables HTTP2 push-promises.
 --
@@ -77,13 +81,20 @@
     decompress = _getDecodingCompression decoding
     format rsp = do
        (hdrs, dat, trls) <- rsp
+       let hdrs2 = headerstoCIHeaders hdrs
+       let trls2 = fmap headerstoCIHeaders trls
        let res =
-             case lookup grpcMessageH hdrs of
+             -- presence of a message indicate an error
+             -- TODO: double check this is true in general
+             case lookup grpcMessageH hdrs2 of
                Nothing     -> fromDecoder $ pushEndOfInput $ flip pushChunk dat $ decodeOutput rpc decompress
                Just errMsg -> Left $ unpack errMsg
 
-       return (hdrs, trls, res)
+       return (hdrs2, trls2, res)
 
+headerstoCIHeaders :: HeaderList -> CIHeaderList
+headerstoCIHeaders hdrs = [(CI.mk k, v) | (k,v) <- hdrs]
+
 -- | Exception raised when a ServerStreaming RPC results in a decoding
 -- error.
 data StreamReplyDecodingError = StreamReplyDecodingError String deriving Show
@@ -129,9 +140,9 @@
                   , (":scheme", "http")
                   , (":authority", authority)
                   , (":path", path rpc) 
-                  , (grpcTimeoutH, showTimeout timeout)
-                  , (grpcEncodingH, grpcCompressionHV compress)
-                  , (grpcAcceptEncodingH, mconcat [grpcAcceptEncodingHVdefault, ",", grpcCompressionHV decompress])
+                  , (CI.original grpcTimeoutH, showTimeout timeout)
+                  , (CI.original grpcEncodingH, grpcCompressionHV compress)
+                  , (CI.original grpcAcceptEncodingH, mconcat [grpcAcceptEncodingHVdefault, ",", grpcCompressionHV decompress])
                   , ("content-type", grpcContentTypeHV)
                   , ("te", "trailers")
                   ] <> extraheaders
@@ -184,7 +195,7 @@
                v2 <- handler v1 hdrs val
                let decompress = _getDecodingCompression decoding
                handleAllChunks decoding v2 hdrs (decodeOutput rpc decompress) unusedDat exitLoop
-           (Done unusedDat _ (Left err)) -> do
+           (Done _ _ (Left err)) -> do
                throwIO (StreamReplyDecodingError $ "done-error: " ++ err)
            (Fail _ _ err)                 -> do
                throwIO (StreamReplyDecodingError $ "fail-error: " ++ err)
@@ -206,7 +217,6 @@
   -- ^ A state-passing action to retrieve the next message to send to the server.
   -> RPCCall s m (a, RawReply (MethodOutput s m))
 streamRequest rpc v0 handler = RPCCall $ \conn stream isfc streamFlowControl encoding decoding ->
-    let decompress = _getDecodingCompression decoding in
     let ocfc = _outgoingFlowControl conn
         go v1 = do
             (v2, nextEvent) <- handler v1
@@ -215,7 +225,7 @@
                     let compress = case doCompress of
                             Compressed -> _getEncodingCompression encoding
                             Uncompressed -> uncompressed
-                    sendSingleMessage rpc msg encoding id conn ocfc stream streamFlowControl
+                    sendSingleMessage rpc msg (Encoding compress) id conn ocfc stream streamFlowControl
                     go v2
                 Left _ -> do
                     sendData conn stream setEndStream ""
diff --git a/src/Network/GRPC/Client/Helpers.hs b/src/Network/GRPC/Client/Helpers.hs
--- a/src/Network/GRPC/Client/Helpers.hs
+++ b/src/Network/GRPC/Client/Helpers.hs
@@ -5,10 +5,18 @@
 -- | Set of helpers helping with writing gRPC clients with not much exposure of
 -- the http2-client complexity.
 --
--- Th
+-- The GrpcClient handles automatic background connection-level window updates
+-- to prevent the connection from starving and pings to force a connection
+-- alive.
+--
+-- There is no automatic reconnection, retry, or healthchecking. These features
+-- are not planned in this library and should be added at higher-levels.
 module Network.GRPC.Client.Helpers where
 
+import Control.Concurrent.Async (Async, async)
+import Control.Concurrent (threadDelay)
 import Control.Exception (throwIO)
+import Control.Monad (forever)
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8 as ByteString
 import Data.ByteString.Char8 (ByteString)
 import Data.Default.Class (def)
@@ -17,11 +25,10 @@
 import qualified Network.TLS.Extra.Cipher as TLS
 import Network.HPACK (HeaderList)
 
-import Network.HTTP2
-import Network.HTTP2.Client
-import Network.GRPC.Client
-import Network.GRPC.HTTP2.Types
-import Network.GRPC.HTTP2.Encoding
+import Network.HTTP2.Client (newHttp2FrameConnection, newHttp2Client, Http2Client(..), IncomingFlowControl(..), GoAwayHandler, FallBackFrameHandler, ignoreFallbackHandler, HostName, PortNumber, TooMuchConcurrency)
+import Network.HTTP2.Client.Helpers (ping)
+import Network.GRPC.Client (RPC, open, singleRequest, streamReply, streamRequest, Authority, Timeout(..), StreamDone, CompressMode, RawReply)
+import Network.GRPC.HTTP2.Encoding (Compression, Encoding(..), Decoding(..), gzip)
 
 -- | A simplified gRPC Client connected via an HTTP2Client to a given server.
 -- Each call from one client will share similar headers, timeout, compression.
@@ -36,8 +43,17 @@
   -- ^ Timeout for RPCs.
   , _grpcClientCompression :: Compression
   -- ^ Compression shared for every call and expected for every answer.
+  , _grpcClientBackground  :: BackgroundTasks
+  -- ^ Running background tasks.
   }
 
+data BackgroundTasks = BackgroundTasks {
+    backgroundWindowUpdate :: Async ()
+  -- ^ Periodically give the server credit to use the connection.
+  , backgroundPing         :: Async ()
+  -- ^ Periodically ping the server.
+  }
+
 -- | Configuration to setup a GrpcClient.
 data GrpcClientConfig = GrpcClientConfig {
     _grpcClientConfigHost            :: !HostName
@@ -50,21 +66,25 @@
   -- ^ Timeout for RPCs.
   , _grpcClientConfigCompression     :: !Compression
   -- ^ Compression shared for every call and expected for every answer.
-  , _grpcClientConfigTLS             :: !(Maybe ClientParams)
+  , _grpcClientConfigTLS             :: !(Maybe TLS.ClientParams)
   -- ^ TLS parameters for the session.
   , _grpcClientConfigGoAwayHandler   :: GoAwayHandler
   -- ^ HTTP2 handler for GoAways.
   , _grpcClientConfigFallbackHandler :: FallBackFrameHandler
   -- ^ HTTP2 handler for unhandled frames.
+  , _grpcClientConfigWindowUpdateDelay :: Int
+  -- ^ Delay in microsecond between to window updates.
+  , _grpcClientConfigPingDelay         :: Int
+  -- ^ Delay in microsecond between to pings.
   }
 
 grpcClientConfigSimple :: HostName -> PortNumber -> UseTlsOrNot -> GrpcClientConfig
 grpcClientConfigSimple host port tls =
-    GrpcClientConfig host port [] (Timeout 3000) gzip (tlsSettings tls host port) throwIO ignoreFallbackHandler
+    GrpcClientConfig host port [] (Timeout 3000) gzip (tlsSettings tls host port) throwIO ignoreFallbackHandler 5000000 1000000
 
 type UseTlsOrNot = Bool
 
-tlsSettings :: UseTlsOrNot -> HostName -> PortNumber -> Maybe ClientParams
+tlsSettings :: UseTlsOrNot -> HostName -> PortNumber -> Maybe TLS.ClientParams
 tlsSettings False _ _ = Nothing
 tlsSettings True host port = Just $ TLS.ClientParams {
           TLS.clientWantSessionResume    = Nothing
@@ -76,7 +96,7 @@
                                                }
         , TLS.clientSupported            = def { TLS.supportedCiphers = TLS.ciphersuite_default }
         , TLS.clientDebug                = def
-         }
+        }
 
 
 setupGrpcClient :: GrpcClientConfig -> IO GrpcClient
@@ -93,7 +113,14 @@
 
   conn <- newHttp2FrameConnection host port tls
   cli <- newHttp2Client conn 8192 8192 [] onGoAway onFallback
-  return $ GrpcClient cli authority headers timeout compression 
+  wuAsync <- async $ forever $ do
+      threadDelay $ _grpcClientConfigWindowUpdateDelay config
+      _updateWindow $ _incomingFlowControl cli
+  pingAsync <- async $ forever $ do
+      threadDelay $ _grpcClientConfigPingDelay config
+      ping cli 3000000 "grpc.hs"
+  let tasks = BackgroundTasks wuAsync pingAsync
+  return $ GrpcClient cli authority headers timeout compression tasks
 
 rawUnary
   :: (Service s, HasMethod s m)
@@ -101,7 +128,7 @@
   -> GrpcClient
   -> MethodInput s m
   -> IO (Either TooMuchConcurrency (RawReply (MethodOutput s m)))
-rawUnary rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression) input =
+rawUnary rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression _) input =
     let call = singleRequest rpc input
     in open client authority headers timeout (Encoding compression) (Decoding compression) call
 
@@ -113,7 +140,7 @@
   -> MethodInput s m
   -> (a -> HeaderList -> MethodOutput s m -> IO a)
   -> IO (Either TooMuchConcurrency (a, HeaderList, HeaderList))
-rawStreamServer rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression) v0 input handler =
+rawStreamServer rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression _) v0 input handler =
     let call = streamReply rpc v0 input handler
     in open client authority headers timeout (Encoding compression) (Decoding compression) call
 
@@ -124,6 +151,6 @@
   -> a
   -> (a -> IO (a, Either StreamDone (CompressMode, MethodInput s m)))
   -> IO (Either TooMuchConcurrency (a, (RawReply (MethodOutput s m))))
-rawStreamClient rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression) v0 getNext =
+rawStreamClient rpc (GrpcClient client authority headers timeout compression _) v0 getNext =
     let call = streamRequest rpc v0 getNext
     in open client authority headers timeout (Encoding compression) (Decoding compression) call