diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
index 6ee9d35936..362f4a0305 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import hudson.model.User;
 import hudson.triggers.Trigger;
 import hudson.util.IncompatibleVMDetected;
 import hudson.util.RingBufferLogHandler;
+import hudson.util.IncompatibleServletVersionDetected;
 
 import javax.naming.Context;
 import javax.naming.InitialContext;
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@ import javax.naming.NamingException;
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
 import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;
+import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
 import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactoryConfigurationError;
 import java.io.File;
@@ -50,6 +52,14 @@ public class WebAppMain implements ServletContextListener {
             return;
         }
 
+        // make sure this is servlet 2.4 container or above
+        try {
+            ServletResponse.class.getMethod("setCharacterEncoding",String.class);
+        } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
+            context.setAttribute("app,",new IncompatibleServletVersionDetected());
+            return;
+        }
+
         // Tomcat breaks XSLT with JDK 5.0 and onward. Check if that's the case, and if so,
         // try to correct it
         try {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bfe9adf38c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected.java
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package hudson.util;
+
+/**
+ * Model object used to display the error top page if
+ * we find out that the container doesn't support servlet 2.4.
+ *
+ * <p>
+ * <tt>index.jelly</tt> would display a nice friendly error page.
+ *
+ * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
+ */
+public class IncompatibleServletVersionDetected {
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected/index.jelly b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected/index.jelly
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dd706c6e2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/IncompatibleServletVersionDetected/index.jelly
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+<j:jelly xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:st="jelly:stapler" xmlns:d="jelly:define" xmlns:l="/lib/layout" xmlns:t="/lib/hudson" xmlns:f="/lib/form" xmlns:i="jelly:fmt">
+  <l:layout>
+    <l:header title="Hudson" />
+    <l:side-panel />
+    <l:main-panel>
+      <h1><img src="${rootURL}/images/48x48/error.gif" alt="[!]"/><st:nbsp/>Error</h1>
+      <p>
+        We detected that your servlet container does not support Servlet 2.4.
+      </p>
+
+    </l:main-panel>
+  </l:layout>
+</j:jelly>
\ No newline at end of file