diff --git a/src/api/main.cpp b/src/api/main.cpp
index 78d02861..3874ae1d 100644
--- a/src/api/main.cpp
+++ b/src/api/main.cpp
@@ -671,8 +671,9 @@ void defaultGet( shared_ptr< HttpServer::Response > response, shared_ptr< HttpSe
   print_request_info( request );
   try
   {
-    auto web_root_path = fs::canonical( "web" );
-    auto path = fs::canonical( web_root_path / request->path );
+    auto web_root_path = fs::current_path() / "web";
+    auto path = web_root_path / request->path;
+
     //Check if path is within web_root_path
     if( distance( web_root_path.begin(), web_root_path.end() ) > distance( path.begin(), path.end() ) ||
         !std::equal( web_root_path.begin(), web_root_path.end(), path.begin() ) )
diff --git a/src/api/server_http.hpp b/src/api/server_http.hpp
index 8a6d2226..8ceb5810 100644
--- a/src/api/server_http.hpp
+++ b/src/api/server_http.hpp
@@ -306,6 +306,12 @@ namespace SimpleWeb {
                     request->method=line.substr(0, method_end);
                     request->path=line.substr(method_end+1, path_end-method_end-1);
 
+                    // strip first / from path if it exists
+                    if( request->path[ 0 ] == '/' )
+                    {
+                      request->path = request->path.substr( 1 );
+                    }
+
                     size_t protocol_end;
                     if((protocol_end=line.find('/', path_end+1))!=std::string::npos) {
                         if(line.compare(path_end+1, protocol_end-path_end-1, "HTTP")!=0)