diff --git a/app/api/coreApi.js b/app/api/coreApi.js
index 8b81bfa..ca3437c 100644
--- a/app/api/coreApi.js
+++ b/app/api/coreApi.js
@@ -242,6 +242,13 @@ function getTxCountStats(dataPtCount, blockStart, blockEnd) {
 			}
 
 			Promise.all(promises).then(function(results) {
+				if (results[0].name == "RpcError" && results[0].code == -8) {
+					// recently started node - no meaningful data to return
+					resolve(null);
+
+					return;
+				}
+
 				var txStats = {
 					txCounts: [],
 					txLabels: [],
diff --git a/routes/baseActionsRouter.js b/routes/baseActionsRouter.js
index af6aa0f..2e6bf6d 100644
--- a/routes/baseActionsRouter.js
+++ b/routes/baseActionsRouter.js
@@ -122,16 +122,23 @@ router.get("/", function(req, res, next) {
 				res.locals.mempoolInfo = promiseResults[0];
 				res.locals.miningInfo = promiseResults[1];
 
-				var rawSmartFeeEsimates = promiseResults[2];
+				var rawSmartFeeEstimates = promiseResults[2];
 
-				var smartFeeEsimates = {};
+				var smartFeeEstimates = {};
 
 				for (var i = 0; i < feeConfTargets.length; i++) {
-					smartFeeEsimates[feeConfTargets[i]] = parseInt(new Decimal(rawSmartFeeEsimates[i].feerate).times(coinConfig.baseCurrencyUnit.multiplier).dividedBy(1000));
+					var rawSmartFeeEstimate = rawSmartFeeEstimates[i];
+
+					if (rawSmartFeeEstimate.errors) {
+						smartFeeEstimates[feeConfTargets[i]] = "?";
+
+					} else {
+						smartFeeEstimates[feeConfTargets[i]] = parseInt(new Decimal(rawSmartFeeEstimate.feerate).times(coinConfig.baseCurrencyUnit.multiplier).dividedBy(1000));
+					}
 				}
 
+				res.locals.smartFeeEstimates = smartFeeEstimates;
 
-				res.locals.smartFeeEsimates = smartFeeEsimates;
 
 				res.locals.hashrate1d = promiseResults[3];
 				res.locals.hashrate7d = promiseResults[4];
diff --git a/views/includes/index-network-summary.pug b/views/includes/index-network-summary.pug
index c88bae8..fcf3ec7 100644
--- a/views/includes/index-network-summary.pug
+++ b/views/includes/index-network-summary.pug
@@ -67,14 +67,14 @@ div.row.index-summary
 						span.border-dotted(title="Current fee estimates (using 'estimatesmartfee') for getting a transaction included in 1 block, 6 blocks (1 hr), 144 blocks (1 day), or 1,008 blocks (1 week).", data-toggle="tooltip") Fee Targets
 						if (false)
 							small.ml-1 (1/h/d/w)
-					td.text-right.text-monospace #{smartFeeEsimates[1]}
+					td.text-right.text-monospace #{smartFeeEstimates[1]}
 						small.d-md-none  
 						small.text-muted /
-						span #{smartFeeEsimates[6]}
+						span #{smartFeeEstimates[6]}
 						small.text-muted /
-						span #{smartFeeEsimates[144]}
+						span #{smartFeeEstimates[144]}
 						small.text-muted /
-						span #{smartFeeEsimates[1008]}
+						span #{smartFeeEstimates[1008]}
 						small  sat/vB
 
 	div(class=colClass)
@@ -88,8 +88,11 @@ div.row.index-summary
 						//span Total Transactions
 						span Total Txs
 					td.text-right.text-monospace
-						- var totalTxData = utils.formatLargeNumber(txStats.totalTxCount, 2);
-						span.border-dotted(title=`${txStats.totalTxCount.toLocaleString()}`, data-toggle="tooltip") #{totalTxData[0]} #{totalTxData[1].abbreviation}
+						if (txStats && txStats.totalTxCount)
+							- var totalTxData = utils.formatLargeNumber(txStats.totalTxCount, 2);
+							span.border-dotted(title=`${txStats.totalTxCount.toLocaleString()}`, data-toggle="tooltip") #{totalTxData[0]} #{totalTxData[1].abbreviation}
+						else
+							span ???
 
 				if (getblockchaininfo.size_on_disk)
 					- var sizeData = utils.formatLargeNumber(getblockchaininfo.size_on_disk, 2);
diff --git a/views/index.pug b/views/index.pug
index 2dd7954..cbcabc6 100644
--- a/views/index.pug
+++ b/views/index.pug
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ block content
 	else
 
 		if (config.demoSite && session.hideHomepageBanner != "true")
-			div(class="alert alert-primary alert-dismissible shadow-sm mb-4", role="alert")
+			div.alert.alert-primary.alert-dismissible.shadow-sm.mb-3(role="alert")
 				span
 					strong #{coinConfig.siteTitle}
 					span  is 
@@ -53,6 +53,15 @@ block content
 				a(href="/changeSetting?name=hideHomepageBanner&value=true", class="close", aria-label="Close", style="text-decoration: none;")
 					span(aria-hidden="true") &times;
 
+		if (getblockchaininfo.initialblockdownload)
+			div.alert.alert-warning.shadow-sm.border.mb-3
+				div.font-weight-bold.mb-1 Initial Block Download (IBD) - In Progress...
+
+				div.mb-1 Your node is currently downloading and verifying blockchain data. Until the process is finished, some features of this tool will be unusable and/or unreliable.
+
+				span.font-weight-bold Progress: 
+				span.text-monospace #{new Decimal(getblockchaininfo.verificationprogress).times(100).toDP(3)}%
+
 
 		div.row
 			- var summaryColCount = 8;