diff --git a/devices/zmq_forwarder/zmq_forwarder.cpp b/devices/zmq_forwarder/zmq_forwarder.cpp
index 42d65b43..b9004841 100644
--- a/devices/zmq_forwarder/zmq_forwarder.cpp
+++ b/devices/zmq_forwarder/zmq_forwarder.cpp
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ int main (int argc, char *argv [])
     //  TODO: make the number of I/O threads configurable.
     zmq::context_t ctx (1, 1);
     zmq::socket_t in_socket (ctx, ZMQ_SUB);
-    in_socket.setsockopt (ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE, "*", 1);
+    in_socket.setsockopt (ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE, "", 0);
     zmq::socket_t out_socket (ctx, ZMQ_PUB);
 
     int n = 0;
diff --git a/examples/chat/display.cpp b/examples/chat/display.cpp
index d3488a20..c6893521 100755
--- a/examples/chat/display.cpp
+++ b/examples/chat/display.cpp
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ int main (int argc, const char *argv [])
     //  Initialise 0MQ infrastructure.
     zmq::context_t ctx (1, 1);
     zmq::socket_t s (ctx, ZMQ_SUB);
-    s.setsockopt (ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE, "*", 1);
+    s.setsockopt (ZMQ_SUBSCRIBE, "", 0);
     s.connect (address);
     
     while (true) {