The main purpose of ETags is for servers to validate whether there is a new version of the file they are requesting. The problem is that sites served on multiple servers are likely to have ETags that do not match. This problem exists for both IIS and Apache served sites. This mismatch is not important in a small site served by a single server. However it is suggested that ETags be removed on larger websites with multiple servers, this decreases header data and thus allows for a faster load. Leaving the mismatching ETag however is said to bog down busier sites. Below is a simple piece of code that shows you how to remove ETags, just add it to your .htaccess file.
FileETag None
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