diff --git a/Documentation/Developers/CHANGELOG-RENE b/Documentation/Developers/CHANGELOG-RENE
index b63e2fe39..3fa4217fe 100644
--- a/Documentation/Developers/CHANGELOG-RENE
+++ b/Documentation/Developers/CHANGELOG-RENE
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
                    updated runit, and make it ROCK
  - Benjamin Schieder: hand-tuned dvgrab's priority
  - Sebastian Jaenicke: update ethereal
+ - Andreas V. Meier: two tiny fixes for network.init
 
 *) 2003-12-13 (2.0.0-rc3 - 2.0.0-rc4)
 
diff --git a/package/base/sysfiles/network.init b/package/base/sysfiles/network.init
index 5fdb06c3c..7c5364f09 100644
--- a/package/base/sysfiles/network.init
+++ b/package/base/sysfiles/network.init
@@ -30,14 +30,14 @@ main_begin
 
     block_begin(start, `Setting up network devices.')
 	[ -x /etc/network/getprofile ] && /etc/network/getprofile
-	profile="$(cat /etc/network/profile)"
-	profile={profile:-default}
+	profile="$(cat /etc/network/profile 2>/dev/null)"
+	profile=${profile:-default}
 	check(`/etc/network/rocknet $profile auto up')
     block_end
 
     block_begin(stop, `Shutting down network devices.')
-	profile="$(cat /etc/network/profile)"
-	profile={profile:-default}
+	profile="$(cat /etc/network/profile 2>/dev/null)"
+	profile=${profile:-default}
 	check(`/etc/network/rocknet $profile auto down')
     block_end