diff --git a/lib/sockopt.c b/lib/sockopt.c
index ed681710e5c7..2ce57b139f6d 100644
--- a/lib/sockopt.c
+++ b/lib/sockopt.c
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ void setsockopt_so_recvbuf(int sock, int size)
 {
 	int orig_req = size;
 
-	while (setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &size, sizeof(size))
-	       == -1)
+	while (size && setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF, &size,
+				  sizeof(size)) == -1)
 		size /= 2;
 
 	if (size != orig_req)
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ 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 (size && setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, &size,
+				  sizeof(size)) == -1)
 		size /= 2;
 
 	if (size != orig_req)