diff --git a/hugvey/communication.py b/hugvey/communication.py
index ecc98fb..45e49ef 100644
--- a/hugvey/communication.py
+++ b/hugvey/communication.py
@@ -8,7 +8,13 @@ mainLogger = logging.getLogger("hugvey")
 LOG_BS = 5
 
 def getTopic(hugvey_id):
-    return "hv{}".format(hugvey_id)
+    if hugvey_id > 99:
+        raise Exception("Incompatible with hugvey id > 99")
+    
+    # We will have to zero-fill the number (01 instead of 1), because of how zmq
+    # topic subscription works: subscribing to hv1 also brings in messages for
+    # hv10 hv11 and hv1whatever, hence only hv01, hv02 etc is unique
+    return "hv{:02}".format(hugvey_id)
 
 
 def zmqSend(socket, hugvey_id, msg):
@@ -21,8 +27,8 @@ def zmqSend(socket, hugvey_id, msg):
 
 async def zmqReceive(socket):
     topic, msg = await socket.recv_multipart()
-    hugvey_id = topic.decode()[2:]
+    hugvey_id = int(topic.decode()[2:])
     mainLogger.getChild("{}".format(hugvey_id)).getChild("communication").debug(
         "Received 0mq messages for Hugvey #{} containing {}".format(hugvey_id, msg.decode())
     )
-    return int(hugvey_id), json.loads(msg.decode())
+    return hugvey_id, json.loads(msg.decode())