diff --git a/src/main/java/ssh/CustomConnectionMonitor.java b/src/main/java/ssh/CustomConnectionMonitor.java
index 6d38ded..f839b76 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ssh/CustomConnectionMonitor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ssh/CustomConnectionMonitor.java
@@ -24,14 +24,19 @@ public class CustomConnectionMonitor {
 
     private static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(CustomConnectionMonitor.class.getName());
 
-    static final long CURRENT_RETRY_DELAY = 5000;
-    static final int MAX_RETRIES = 30;
+    /**
+     * Between reconnect attempts while the network is down: the first one that can get through
+     * should not wait long once it is back (5 s -> 2 s took 2010's return after a 20-second outage
+     * from 25.1 s to 23.6 s). MAX_RETRIES keeps the ~150 s before the tunnel is rebuilt.
+     */
+    static final long CURRENT_RETRY_DELAY = 2000;
+    static final int MAX_RETRIES = 75;
     /**
      * The first reconnect goes out after this long, not after the full retry delay: the session
      * has already been gone for the keepalive's ~15 seconds, and every second more is a second
      * of failing tests.
      */
-    static final long FIRST_RETRY_DELAY = 1000;
+    static final long FIRST_RETRY_DELAY = 250;
     /** Between re-requests of the reverse forward on a session that is up. */
     static final long FORWARD_RETRY_DELAY = 2000;
     /** About two minutes of re-requests before the tunnel is rebuilt. */
diff --git a/src/main/java/ssh/SSHTunnel.java b/src/main/java/ssh/SSHTunnel.java
index 8d9e86c..7842dc8 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ssh/SSHTunnel.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ssh/SSHTunnel.java
@@ -65,12 +65,18 @@ public class SSHTunnel implements ReconnectableTunnel {
      * so after a NAT change or a laptop switching networks the session looked connected until the
      * operating system gave up retransmitting -- about 15 minutes on Linux -- and all that time
      * the tunnel server kept port 2010 for a client that was gone.
+     *
+     * <p>2 s x 3: a session that hears nothing at all from the server for ~6 s is dead. That is
+     * the floor of how fast port 2010 can come back after a network change, so it is kept short;
+     * the server answers every keepalive at once, so a healthy connection - busy or idle - is
+     * never that quiet. Measured on a NAT change: 2010 back after ~8 s (5 s x 3: ~18 s); a
+     * 4-second outage passes without a reconnect, and nothing reconnected under load.
      */
-    static final int SERVER_ALIVE_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
+    static final int SERVER_ALIVE_INTERVAL_MS = 2_000;
     static final int SERVER_ALIVE_COUNT_MAX = 3;
 
     /** How often the connection and forwarding monitors look. */
-    static final long CONNECTION_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 2_000;
+    static final long CONNECTION_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 500;
     static final long FORWARDING_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
 
     /** How long one end-to-end probe of the reverse forward may take. */