diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ce447fa..9bfb5ed 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -67,6 +67,37 @@ go build -o /usr/local/bin/tsproxy .
 
 Target can be any MagicDNS name, short hostname, or tailnet IP.
 
+### Prefer a tailnet IP for the target
+
+The dial path resolves a target in two stages. A literal IP is used as-is with
+no lookup at all. A *name* is checked against the in-memory tailnet map, and on
+a miss falls through to a real **system DNS** query — which can stall for
+seconds on a short hostname, entirely on the local machine, before any packet
+goes near the target.
+
+That shows up as forwarded dials alternating between milliseconds (resolver
+warm) and seconds (resolver cold), which is long enough for a client to hit its
+own timeout while it sits connected and unserved. If you see `SLOW DIAL` in the
+logs, try the tailnet IP (`100.x.y.z:PORT`) or the fully-qualified MagicDNS name
+instead of the short one.
+
+### Tuning for a low-latency link
+
+The defaults are conservative because a tailnet dial may need to renegotiate a
+path or fall back to DERP. If your target is a millisecond away, much tighter
+values are reasonable and will surface a dead target in about a second:
+
+```sh
+tsproxy -f 127.0.0.1:8080=100.x.y.z:80 --dial-timeout 2s --probe-timeout 1s
+```
+
+**Fix resolution before tightening these.** A slow dial caused by system DNS is
+not a slow link, and a timeout short enough to cut it off turns connections that
+would have worked into failures — each one resetting a client and closing the
+port until the next probe, which then pays the same DNS cost. Confirm dials are
+consistently fast (`--trace` shows `connected to target in ...`) and only then
+lower the budgets.
+
 ## Running under launchd (macOS)
 
 An example LaunchAgent plist is included as
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index e057b98..407f69a 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -477,6 +477,12 @@ func (t *targetConn) failure() error {
 	return t.err
 }
 
+// A dial slower than this is reported without --trace. It is not a fraction of
+// --dial-timeout on purpose: the budget is about when to give up, this is about
+// how long a client will sit connected but unserved, which is a much smaller
+// number and is what actually breaks applications.
+const slowDial = time.Second
+
 // which side of a forwarded connection finished first, and what it moved.
 type direction struct {
 	name  string
@@ -566,10 +572,13 @@ func (p *proxy) handle(ctx context.Context, in net.Conn, id uint64) {
 		p.suspend()
 		return
 	}
-	if dialTook > p.dialWait/4 {
-		// Worth seeing without --trace: a dial this slow is on its way to
-		// becoming a failure, and says the tailnet path is being rebuilt.
-		p.logf("[conn %d] slow dial: connected in %s (budget %s)", id, dialTook, p.dialWait)
+	if dialTook > slowDial {
+		// Worth seeing without --trace. This is measured against what a client
+		// will sit through, not against the dial budget: the client is already
+		// connected -- the local handshake completed the moment it called
+		// connect() -- so every second spent here is a second it waits with no
+		// idea anything is wrong, and long enough will trip its own timeout.
+		p.logf("[conn %d] SLOW DIAL: connected in %s -- the client has been waiting that long", id, dialTook)
 	} else {
 		p.tracef("[conn %d] connected to target in %s", id, dialTook)
 	}
@@ -612,7 +621,11 @@ func (p *proxy) handle(ctx context.Context, in net.Conn, id uint64) {
 		abort(in)
 		p.suspend()
 	case first.err != nil:
-		p.tracef("[conn %d] reset after %s: %s: %v (%d bytes)", id, lived, first.name, first.err, first.bytes)
+		// The target is wired through targetConn, so any failure of its own
+		// would have set targetErr and taken the branch above. Reaching here
+		// means the local client is what broke -- it gave up, or went away.
+		p.logf("[conn %d] client gave up after %s: %v (%s moved %d bytes)",
+			id, lived, first.err, first.name, first.bytes)
 		abort(in)
 	default:
 		p.tracef("[conn %d] closed cleanly after %s: %s ended, %d bytes", id, lived, first.name, first.bytes)