diff --git a/apps/ccnx-consumer.cc b/apps/ccnx-consumer.cc
index 5d2ce7c..dc54f92 100644
--- a/apps/ccnx-consumer.cc
+++ b/apps/ccnx-consumer.cc
@@ -136,7 +136,10 @@
   interestHeader.SetName                (nameWithSequence);
   interestHeader.SetInterestLifetime    (m_interestLifeTime);
   interestHeader.SetChildSelector       (m_childSelector);
-  interestHeader.SetExclude             (Create<CcnxNameComponents> (m_exclude));
+  if (m_exclude.size ()>0)
+    {
+      interestHeader.SetExclude             (Create<CcnxNameComponents> (m_exclude));
+    }
   interestHeader.SetMaxSuffixComponents (m_maxSuffixComponents);
   interestHeader.SetMinSuffixComponents (m_minSuffixComponents);
         
diff --git a/apps/ccnx-producer.cc b/apps/ccnx-producer.cc
index 0a82d0c..844acd4 100644
--- a/apps/ccnx-producer.cc
+++ b/apps/ccnx-producer.cc
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
                    MakeCcnxNameComponentsAccessor (&CcnxProducer::m_prefix),
                    MakeCcnxNameComponentsChecker ())
     .AddAttribute ("PayloadSize", "Virtual payload size for Content packets",
-                   UintegerValue (100),
+                   UintegerValue (1024),
                    MakeUintegerAccessor(&CcnxProducer::m_virtualPayloadSize),
                    MakeUintegerChecker<uint32_t>())
     // .AddTraceSource ("InterestTrace", "Interests that were received",