diff --git a/doc/installation.md b/doc/installation.md
index 65be32b..8fabc45 100644
--- a/doc/installation.md
+++ b/doc/installation.md
@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ DEFVOLUME=PUB001
 - `SSLPROXY=YES` is only for a TLS-terminating proxy in front of FTPD. Run bare
   it promises clients a confidentiality it does not deliver; the member's own
   comments spell this out.
-- `BINDTRIES`/`BINDWAIT` (both 1–100, both default 10) decide how long FTPD
+- `BINDTRIES`/`BINDWAIT` (both 1–100, defaulting to 3 and 5) decide how long FTPD
   keeps trying a listener port it cannot have yet — a port still held, or a
   stack that is not up. Giving up ends the started task, so raise `BINDTRIES`
   if `/S FTPD` runs early in an IPL.
diff --git a/samplib/ftpdprm0 b/samplib/ftpdprm0
index 29405eb..47dc3d0 100644
--- a/samplib/ftpdprm0
+++ b/samplib/ftpdprm0
@@ -25,16 +25,16 @@ PASVPORTS=22000-22200
 #
 # A bind() that fails for a reason waiting can fix -- the port still held
 # by something, or the stack not up yet at IPL -- is retried BINDTRIES
-# times, BINDWAIT seconds apart.  Both 1-100, both default 10, so FTPD
-# waits up to 100 seconds before giving up.
+# times, BINDWAIT seconds apart.  Both 1-100; the defaults 3 and 5 give
+# FTPD 15 seconds before it gives up.
 #
 # Giving up ends the started task (FTPD056E): an FTPD that cannot listen
 # has nothing left to do, and no console command re-tries the bind.  So
 # these two decide how much transient trouble a start survives.  Raise
 # BINDTRIES where FTPD is started before TCP/IP is reliably up.
 #
-BINDTRIES=10
-BINDWAIT=10
+BINDTRIES=3
+BINDWAIT=5
 #
 # PASVBIND is where the passive listener binds, PASVADR is what the
 # client is told to connect to -- they are only the same by default.
diff --git a/src/ftpd#cfg.c b/src/ftpd#cfg.c
index 5d12458..c46e5e4 100644
--- a/src/ftpd#cfg.c
+++ b/src/ftpd#cfg.c
@@ -30,9 +30,23 @@ ftpdcfg_defaults(ftpd_config_t *cfg)
     strcpy(cfg->pasv_bind, "ANY");  /* bind every address, as before */
     cfg->pasv_lo = 22000;
     cfg->pasv_hi = 22200;
-    cfg->bind_tries = 10;           /* HTTPD's defaults: up to 100s of
-                                    ** patience before the STC ends   */
-    cfg->bind_wait = 10;
+    /* 15 seconds of patience, not HTTPD's 100.  HTTPD's number predates a
+    ** stale port sweep: there, a repeated bind was the only defence against
+    ** a port a dead instance still held.  Here close_stale_port() has
+    ** already cleared that case before the retry loop is reached (#109), so
+    ** what still answers EADDRINUSE afterwards is most likely a LIVE foreign
+    ** listener -- and waiting on one does not help, it does not go away.
+    **
+    ** The cost of waiting also changed: since #111 a bind that never
+    ** succeeds ends the STC, so the operator who typed /S and is watching
+    ** the console waits out the whole budget for a verdict.  15 seconds
+    ** covers TIME_WAIT and a tight restart; a failed start is recognisable
+    ** as one while someone is still looking at it.
+    **
+    ** The one case that wants far more patience is EADDRNOTAVAIL early in an
+    ** IPL, and that is what raising BINDTRIES is for. */
+    cfg->bind_tries = 3;
+    cfg->bind_wait = 5;
     /* Limits */
     cfg->max_sessions = 10;
     cfg->idle_timeout = 300;
diff --git a/src/ftpd.c b/src/ftpd.c
index c919ac6..0150306 100644
--- a/src/ftpd.c
+++ b/src/ftpd.c
@@ -459,10 +459,12 @@ bind_retryable(int err)
 ** give up early when the server is being stopped.
 **
 ** The step is what makes /P work during a retry run.  BINDTRIES x
-** BINDWAIT can now be 100 seconds; terminate() waits 10 for the socket
-** thread and then says FTPD095W SOCKET THREAD DID NOT TERMINATE, so a
-** thread asleep in one long STIMER would make every longer retry setting
-** worse for the operator than the short one it replaced.
+** BINDWAIT is 15 seconds by default but goes to 100 x 100 -- and the
+** sites that raise it are exactly the ones that will need to interrupt
+** it.  terminate() waits 10 seconds for the socket thread and then says
+** FTPD095W SOCKET THREAD DID NOT TERMINATE, so a thread asleep in one
+** long STIMER would make every longer retry setting worse for the
+** operator than the short one it replaced.
 **
 ** Returns 0 when the wait completed, -1 when shutdown was signalled.
 ** ----------------------------------------------------------------- */