diff --git a/rsync.c b/rsync.c
index ee2f72b6..8595d517 100644
--- a/rsync.c
+++ b/rsync.c
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@ static char *default_charset(void)
 #if defined HAVE_LIBCHARSET_H && defined HAVE_LOCALE_CHARSET
 	return locale_charset();
 #elif defined HAVE_LANGINFO_H && defined HAVE_NL_LANGINFO
-	return nl_langinfo(CODESET);
+	char *def = nl_langinfo(CODESET);
+	if (strcmp(def, "646") == 0) /* Solaris brain-damage */
+		return "ascii";
+	return def;
 #else
 	return ""; /* Works with (at the very least) gnu iconv... */
 #endif