diff --git a/bin/network-down b/bin/network-down
index ec12e1f6..02d4e4c4 100755
--- a/bin/network-down
+++ b/bin/network-down
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@ else
 	x2=`/sbin/ifconfig "$interface" | grep "RX bytes" | sed "s/^.*RX bytes://" | sed "s/ .*$//"`
 	echo "$x2" > "$cache"
 	rate=`echo "$t1" "$t2" "$x1" "$x2" | awk '{printf "%.0f", ($4 - $3) / ($2 - $1) / 1024 }'`
-	if [ "$rate" -gt 1024 ]; then
+	if [ "$rate" -lt 0 ]; then
+		rate=0
+	elif [ "$rate" -gt 1024 ]; then
 		rate=`echo "$rate" | awk '{printf "%.1f", $1/1024}'`
 		unit="MB/s"
 	fi
diff --git a/bin/network-up b/bin/network-up
index f238b750..f2ddb348 100755
--- a/bin/network-up
+++ b/bin/network-up
@@ -39,7 +39,9 @@ else
 	x2=`/sbin/ifconfig "$interface" | grep "TX bytes" | sed "s/^.*TX bytes://" | sed "s/ .*$//"`
 	echo "$x2" > "$cache"
 	rate=`echo "$t1" "$t2" "$x1" "$x2" | awk '{printf "%.0f", ($4 - $3) / ($2 - $1) / 1024 }'`
-	if [ "$rate" -gt 1024 ]; then
+	if [ "$rate" -lt 0 ]; then
+		rate=0
+	elif [ "$rate" -gt 1024 ]; then
 		rate=`echo "$rate" | awk '{printf "%.1f", $1/1024}'`
 		unit="MB/s"
 	fi
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index f10e6bec..a84240c6 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ byobu (2.6) unreleased; urgency=low
     remove the dpkg diversion on /usr/bin/screen as this has proven
     to be controversial; users will need to call "byobu" to launch
     a byobu-style screen session
+  * bin/network-*: set rate=0 when rate is negative (ie, on startup)
 
- -- Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com>  Tue, 26 May 2009 16:47:40 +0200
+ -- Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com>  Tue, 26 May 2009 21:52:53 +0200
 
 byobu (2.5-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low