diff --git a/ddos-mitigator.conf b/ddos-mitigator.conf
index a7ebc54..abcd59e 100644
--- a/ddos-mitigator.conf
+++ b/ddos-mitigator.conf
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ DATABASE_FILE="/path/to/geoip/country-or-city-database.mmdb"
 # Enable the autopilot for automatically banning IP addresses of the desired countries (see also COUNTRIES option).
 # Only ban IP addresses with at least AUTOPILOT current connections. If the value is not specified or 0, don't
 # automatically ban IP addresses, but run in interactive mode.
-AUTOPILOT="1"
+AUTOPILOT="0"
 
 # Defines the subnet size in bytes to be analyzed. Valid values are:
 # -  8 for class A networks (X.0.0.0/8)
diff --git a/ddos-mitigator.sh b/ddos-mitigator.sh
index 01689ea..a5b4b80 100755
--- a/ddos-mitigator.sh
+++ b/ddos-mitigator.sh
@@ -198,24 +198,42 @@ function filter() {
 	mv "${filtered}" "${file}"
 }
 
+function set_default_values() {
+	if [[ -z "${autopilot}" ]]; then
+		autopilot=0
+	fi
+	if [[ -z "${netmask}" ]]; then
+		netmask=0
+	fi
+	if [[ -z "${jail}" ]]; then
+		jail="apache-auth"
+	fi
+	if [[ -z "${bancountries}" ]]; then
+		bancountries=("CN")
+	fi
+	if [[ -z "${port}" ]]; then
+		port=443
+	fi
+}
+
 function parse_config_file() {
 	source "${configfile}"
-	if [[ -z "${autopilot+x}" ]]; then
+	if [[ -z "${autopilot}" ]]; then
 		autopilot="${AUTOPILOT}"
 	fi
 	if [[ -z "${bancountries}" ]]; then
-		bancountries=()${COUNTRIES[@]})
+		bancountries=(${COUNTRIES[@]})
 	fi
-	if [[ -z "${database+x}" ]]; then
+	if [[ -z "${database}" ]]; then
 		database="${DATABASE_FILE}"
 	fi
-	if [[ -z "${jail+x}" ]]; then
+	if [[ -z "${jail}" ]]; then
 		jail="${JAIL}"
 	fi
-	if [[ -z "${netmask+x}" ]]; then
+	if [[ -z "${netmask}" ]]; then
 		netmask="${NETMASK}"
 	fi
-	if [[ -z "${port+x}" ]]; then
+	if [[ -z "${port}" ]]; then
 		port="${PORT}"
 	fi
 }
@@ -331,6 +349,9 @@ function parse_command_line_args() {
 		echo "Database '${database}' is not accessible." >&2
 		exit 1
 	fi
+
+	# Here, we set the default values for all options that have not been set yet.
+	set_default_values
 }
 
 ################################################################################
@@ -483,12 +504,12 @@ banlist="${tmpdir}/banlist.txt"
 touch "${banlist}"
 
 # Parse the command line options
-autopilot=0
-netmask=0
-jail="apache-auth"
-bancountries=("CN")
+autopilot=
+netmask=
+jail=
+bancountries=
 database=
-port=443
+port=
 
 parse_command_line_args "$@"