diff --git a/libknet/compress_lz4hc.c b/libknet/compress_lz4hc.c
index b14fb516..aa832af6 100644
--- a/libknet/compress_lz4hc.c
+++ b/libknet/compress_lz4hc.c
@@ -1,118 +1,123 @@
 /*
  * Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Red Hat, Inc.  All rights reserved.
  *
  * Author: Fabio M. Di Nitto <fabbione@kronosnet.org>
  *
  * This software licensed under GPL-2.0+, LGPL-2.0+
  */
 #define KNET_MODULE
 
 #include "config.h"
 
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <lz4.h>
 #include <lz4hc.h>
 
 #include "logging.h"
 #include "compress_model.h"
 
 #ifdef LZ4HC_CLEVEL_MAX
 #define KNET_LZ4HC_MAX LZ4HC_CLEVEL_MAX
 #endif
 #ifdef LZ4HC_MAX_CLEVEL
 #define KNET_LZ4HC_MAX LZ4HC_MAX_CLEVEL
 #endif
 #ifndef KNET_LZ4HC_MAX
-#define KNET_LZ4HC_MAX 0
-#error Please check lz4hc.h for missing LZ4HC_CLEVEL_MAX or LZ4HC_MAX_CLEVEL variants
+/*
+ * older releases of lz4 do not define LZ4HC_CLEVEL range.
+ * According to lz4hc.h, any value between 0 and 16 is valid.
+ * We defalt to 16 based on the comments in the include file
+ * from older versions.
+ */
+#define KNET_LZ4HC_MAX 16
 #endif
 
 static int lz4hc_val_level(
 	knet_handle_t knet_h,
 	int compress_level)
 {
 	if (compress_level < 1) {
 		log_err(knet_h, KNET_SUB_LZ4HCCOMP, "lz4hc supports only 1+ values for compression level");
 		errno = EINVAL;
 		return -1;
 	}
 
 	if (compress_level < 4) {
 		log_info(knet_h, KNET_SUB_LZ4HCCOMP, "lz4hc recommends 4+ compression level for better results");
 	}
 
 	if (compress_level > KNET_LZ4HC_MAX) {
 		log_warn(knet_h, KNET_SUB_LZ4HCCOMP, "lz4hc installed on this system supports up to compression level %d. Higher values behaves as %d", KNET_LZ4HC_MAX, KNET_LZ4HC_MAX);
 	}
 
 	return 0;
 }
 
 static int lz4hc_compress(
 	knet_handle_t knet_h,
 	const unsigned char *buf_in,
 	const ssize_t buf_in_len,
 	unsigned char *buf_out,
 	ssize_t *buf_out_len)
 {
 	int lzerr = 0, err = 0;
 	int savederrno = 0;
 
 	lzerr = LZ4_compress_HC((const char *)buf_in, (char *)buf_out, buf_in_len, KNET_DATABUFSIZE_COMPRESS, knet_h->compress_level);
 
 	/*
 	 * data compressed
 	 */
         if (lzerr > 0) {
 		*buf_out_len = lzerr;
 	}
 
 	/*
 	 * unable to compress
 	 */
 	if (lzerr <= 0) {
 		log_err(knet_h, KNET_SUB_LZ4HCCOMP, "lz4hc compression error: %d", lzerr);
 		savederrno = EINVAL;
 		err = -1;
 	}
 
 	errno = savederrno;
 	return err;
 }
 
 /* This is a straight copy from compress_lz4.c */
 static int lz4_decompress(
 	knet_handle_t knet_h,
 	const unsigned char *buf_in,
 	const ssize_t buf_in_len,
 	unsigned char *buf_out,
 	ssize_t *buf_out_len)
 {
 	int lzerr = 0, err = 0;
 	int savederrno = 0;
 
 	lzerr = LZ4_decompress_safe((const char *)buf_in, (char *)buf_out, buf_in_len, KNET_DATABUFSIZE);
 
 	if (lzerr < 0) {
 		log_err(knet_h, KNET_SUB_LZ4COMP, "lz4 decompression error: %d", lzerr);
 		savederrno = EINVAL;
 		err = -1;
 	}
 
 	if (lzerr > 0) {
 		*buf_out_len = lzerr;
 	}
 
 	errno = savederrno;
 	return err;
 }
 
 compress_ops_t compress_model = {
 	KNET_COMPRESS_MODEL_ABI,
 	NULL,
 	NULL,
 	NULL,
 	lz4hc_val_level,
 	lz4hc_compress,
 	lz4_decompress
 };