Nodejs: convert string to buffer

I'm trying to write a string to a socket (socket is called "response"). Here is the code I have sofar (I'm trying to implement a byte caching proxy...):

var http = require('http');
var sys=require('sys');

var localHash={};

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
    var proxy = http.createClient(80, request.headers['host'])
    var proxy_request = proxy.request(request.method, request.url, request.headers);
    proxy_request.addListener('response', function (proxy_response) {
    proxy_response.addListener('data', function(x) {
        var responseData=x.toString();
        var f=50;
        var toTransmit="";
        var p=0;        

        var N=responseData.length;
        if(N>f){
            p=Math.floor(N/f);

            var hash="";
            var chunk="";
            for(var i=0;i<p;i++){
                chunk=responseData.substr(f*i,f);
                hash=DJBHash(chunk);
                if(localHash[hash]==undefined){
                    localHash[hash]=chunk;
                    toTransmit=toTransmit+chunk;
                }else{
                    sys.puts("***hit"+chunk);
                    toTransmit=toTransmit+chunk;//"***EOH"+hash;
                }
            }
            //remainder:
            chunk=responseData.substr(f*p);
            hash=DJBHash(chunk);
            if(localHash[hash]==undefined){
                localHash[hash]=chunk;
                toTransmit=toTransmit+chunk;
            }else{
                toTransmit=toTransmit+chunk;//"***EOH"+hash;
            }
        }else{
            toTransmit=responseData;
        }
        response.write(new Buffer(toTransmit));   /*error occurs here */
    });
    proxy_response.addListener('end', function() {
        response.end();
    });
    response.writeHead(proxy_response.statusCode, proxy_response.headers);
    });
    request.addListener('data', function(chunk) {
        sys.puts(chunk);
        proxy_request.write(chunk, 'binary');
    });
    request.addListener('end', function() {
        proxy_request.end();
    });
}).listen(8080);



function DJBHash(str) {
    var hash = 5381;
    for(var i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
        hash = (((hash << 5) + hash) + str.charCodeAt(i)) & 0xffffffff;
    }
    if(hash<-1){
        hash=hash*-1;
    }
    return hash;
}

The trouble is, I keep getting a "content encoding error" in Firefox. It's as if the gizipped content isn't being transmitted properly. I've ensured that "toTransmit" is the same as "x" via console.log(x) and console.log(toTransmit).

It's worth noting that if I replace response.write(new Buffer(toTransmit)) with simply response.write(x), the proxy works as expected, but I need to do some payload analysis and then pass "toTransmit", not "x".

I've also tried to response.write(toTransmit) (i.e. without the conversion to buffer) and I keep getting the same content encoding error.

I'm really stuck. I thought I had this problem fixed by converting the string to a buffer as per another thread (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7090510/nodejs-content-encoding-error), but I've re-opened a new thread to discuss this new problem I'm experiencing.

I should add that if I open a page via the proxy in Opera, I get gobblydeegook - it's as if the gzipped data gets corrupted.

Any insight greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

How about this?

var responseData = Buffer.from(x, 'utf8');

from: Convert string to buffer Node