diff --git a/lib/sockopt.c b/lib/sockopt.c
index 0c4adb0b7c22..41fcc41202ef 100644
--- a/lib/sockopt.c
+++ b/lib/sockopt.c
@@ -24,9 +24,12 @@ void setsockopt_so_recvbuf(int sock, int size)
 {
 	int orig_req = size;
 
-	while (setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &size, sizeof(size))
-	       == -1)
+	while (setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &size, sizeof(size)) ==
+	       -1) {
+		if (size == 0)
+			break;
 		size /= 2;
+	}
 
 	if (size != orig_req)
 		flog_err(EC_LIB_SOCKET,
@@ -38,9 +41,12 @@ void setsockopt_so_sendbuf(const int sock, int size)
 {
 	int orig_req = size;
 
-	while (setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &size, sizeof(size))
-	       == -1)
+	while (setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &size, sizeof(size)) ==
+	       -1) {
+		if (size == 0)
+			break;
 		size /= 2;
+	}
 
 	if (size != orig_req)
 		flog_err(EC_LIB_SOCKET,