diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e865709..ebe96e7 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ hosts:
 packaging-test:
 	@./packaging/rollback_test.sh
 	@./packaging/launch_test.sh
+	@./packaging/roused_test.sh
 
 fmt:
 	@test -z "$$(gofmt -l . )" || { echo "unformatted:"; gofmt -l . ; exit 1; }
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-host/main.go b/cmd/mesh-host/main.go
index 2eb9eac..6fc4d63 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-host/main.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-host/main.go
@@ -602,13 +602,49 @@ func runLink(ctx context.Context, opts options) error {
 	// (novox/hq ADR 0004).
 	go holdTheMachine(ctx, opts, mine, say)
 
-	return link.Hold(ctx, link.Membership{
+	return link.HoldRoused(ctx, link.Membership{
 		Node:        mine.Node,
 		Broker:      mine.Membership.Broker,
 		Fingerprint: mine.Membership.Fingerprint,
 		Password:    mine.Membership.Password,
 		Signer:      mine.Membership.Signer,
-	}, apply, say, opts.timeout)
+	}, apply, say, opts.timeout, rousedBySignal(ctx))
+}
+
+// rousedBySignal is the machine telling this process that its link is probably stale.
+//
+// **A signal, because nothing may listen on a node** (novox/hq ADR 0004). A socket for this would
+// be a control surface on every machine, reachable by anything that can reach the machine, in
+// exchange for saving twenty seconds — and the whole security argument rests on there not being
+// one. A signal is delivered by the service manager to a process it already supervises.
+//
+// SIGHUP, because that is the signal a long-running program conventionally reads as *look again*,
+// and nothing here is being reloaded from a file that a different signal would suit better.
+//
+// Dropped rather than queued when one arrives while another is unread: two wakes in the same
+// instant are one wake, and a machine that suspends and resumes repeatedly must not build a
+// backlog of reconnections to work through.
+func rousedBySignal(ctx context.Context) link.Roused {
+	woken := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
+	signal.Notify(woken, syscall.SIGHUP)
+
+	out := make(chan struct{}, 1)
+	go func() {
+		defer signal.Stop(woken)
+		for {
+			select {
+			case <-ctx.Done():
+				return
+			case <-woken:
+				select {
+				case out <- struct{}{}:
+				default:
+					// One is already waiting to be read. Two wakes in the same instant are one.
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}()
+	return out
 }
 
 // ReconcileEvery is how often a node re-applies what it was last told.
diff --git a/internal/link/roused_test.go b/internal/link/roused_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1071566
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/link/roused_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+package link
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"strings"
+	"sync"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// A machine that just woke does not wait to be told its link is dead.
+//
+// After a resume the socket looks perfectly healthy from inside the process — no error, no close,
+// because nothing has tried to send anything. Heartbeats discover it twenty or thirty seconds
+// later, and for that time the node believes it is in a mesh it has left, which is the one state
+// this design says must never be indistinguishable from being connected.
+func TestBeingRousedEndsTheCurrentAttemptRatherThanWaitingForATimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	// A link that never returns on its own, which is exactly what a suspended connection is.
+	held := make(chan context.Context, 4)
+	running := func(ctx context.Context) error {
+		held <- ctx
+		<-ctx.Done()
+		return errors.New("the link ended")
+	}
+
+	rouse := make(chan struct{}, 1)
+	said := &saidSoFar{}
+	ctx, stop := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer stop()
+
+	finished := make(chan error, 1)
+	go func() { finished <- holdWith(ctx, running, said.say, rouse) }()
+
+	first := <-held
+	select {
+	case <-first.Done():
+		t.Fatal("the link ended before anything roused it")
+	case <-time.After(50 * time.Millisecond):
+	}
+
+	rouse <- struct{}{}
+	select {
+	case <-first.Done():
+	case <-time.After(2 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("the machine woke and the link was left running against a socket that is gone")
+	}
+
+	// And it opens another one rather than stopping.
+	select {
+	case <-held:
+	case <-time.After(5 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("the link was dropped and never opened again")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(said.all(), "woken or moved") {
+		t.Fatalf("nothing was said about why the link was dropped:\n%s", said.all())
+	}
+
+	stop()
+	select {
+	case <-finished:
+	case <-time.After(2 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("it did not stop when asked")
+	}
+}
+
+// A machine nothing ever rouses is every machine that does not suspend, and must behave as before.
+func TestAMachineNothingRousesIsUnaffected(t *testing.T) {
+	attempts := make(chan struct{}, 4)
+	running := func(context.Context) error {
+		attempts <- struct{}{}
+		return errors.New("the link ended")
+	}
+	ctx, stop := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer stop()
+	go func() { _ = holdWith(ctx, running, func(string) {}, nil) }()
+
+	// It keeps trying, which is the behaviour a node with no rouse has always had.
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		select {
+		case <-attempts:
+		case <-time.After(10 * time.Second):
+			t.Fatal("a node with nothing to rouse it stopped reconnecting")
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+type saidSoFar struct {
+	mu   sync.Mutex
+	said []string
+}
+
+func (s *saidSoFar) say(line string) {
+	s.mu.Lock()
+	defer s.mu.Unlock()
+	s.said = append(s.said, line)
+}
+
+func (s *saidSoFar) all() string {
+	s.mu.Lock()
+	defer s.mu.Unlock()
+	return strings.Join(s.said, "\n")
+}
diff --git a/internal/link/run.go b/internal/link/run.go
index 091e2e2..dc62e5c 100644
--- a/internal/link/run.go
+++ b/internal/link/run.go
@@ -57,7 +57,39 @@ type Announce func(string)
 // hours. Retrying every second for hours is a node shouting into nothing; waiting a minute after
 // a broker blip is a node that is needlessly late. So it starts fast and slows down, and resets
 // once a connection has actually held.
+// Roused is a channel that says the machine has reason to believe its link is stale — it woke
+// from suspend, or its network changed.
+//
+// **The machine knows before any timeout does.** A suspended laptop's connection is dead the
+// moment it wakes, and heartbeats find that out in twenty or thirty seconds; for that time the
+// node believes it is in the mesh and is not, which is the one state this design says must never
+// be indistinguishable from being connected. Nothing new listens on the node to arrange it — the
+// signal a service manager already sends is enough (novox/hq ADR 0004).
+//
+// Nil is allowed and means nothing ever rouses it, which is every machine that does not suspend.
+type Roused <-chan struct{}
+
 func Hold(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce, timeout time.Duration) error {
+	return HoldRoused(ctx, m, apply, say, timeout, nil)
+}
+
+// HoldRoused is Hold, told when the machine has reason to think its link is stale.
+func HoldRoused(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce,
+	timeout time.Duration, roused Roused) error {
+
+	return holdWith(ctx, func(ctx context.Context) error {
+		return Run(ctx, m, apply, say, timeout)
+	}, say, roused)
+}
+
+// attempt is one try at holding the link open, returning when it ends for any reason.
+//
+// Named so the loop below can be driven without a broker. What the loop decides — when to wait,
+// how long, what being roused does — is the part with the reasoning in it, and it was reachable
+// only through a real connection before.
+type attempt func(context.Context) error
+
+func holdWith(ctx context.Context, run attempt, say Announce, roused Roused) error {
 	const (
 		first = 2 * time.Second
 		most  = 2 * time.Minute
@@ -70,7 +102,31 @@ func Hold(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce, timeou
 
 	for {
 		began := time.Now()
-		err := Run(ctx, m, apply, say, timeout)
+
+		// The link runs under a context this loop can cancel, so being roused ends the current
+		// attempt rather than only shortening the wait after it.
+		//
+		// **That is the whole of it.** After a resume the socket looks perfectly healthy from
+		// inside this process — there is no error and no close, because nothing has tried to
+		// send anything. It is heartbeats that eventually discover it, twenty or thirty seconds
+		// later. A machine that knows it just woke does not have to wait to be told.
+		//
+		// A rouse that turns out to be spurious costs one reconnect, which is cheap and
+		// idempotent: the node redeclares its queue and anything unacknowledged is redelivered.
+		// The alternative costs half a minute of believing it is in a mesh it has left.
+		trying, done := context.WithCancel(ctx)
+		if roused != nil {
+			go func() {
+				select {
+				case <-trying.Done():
+				case <-roused:
+					say("woken or moved — dropping the link and opening it again")
+					done()
+				}
+			}()
+		}
+		err := run(trying)
+		done()
 		if ctx.Err() != nil {
 			return nil
 		}
@@ -95,6 +151,14 @@ func Hold(ctx context.Context, m Membership, apply Applier, say Announce, timeou
 		select {
 		case <-ctx.Done():
 			return nil
+		case <-roused:
+			// And it does not serve out a wait computed for a broker that was restarting, either.
+			//
+			// The backoff is not *reset* by this. Being roused says the machine changed, not that
+			// whatever was refusing the connection has stopped — a laptop woken repeatedly on a
+			// network with no route would otherwise retry at full speed for as long as somebody
+			// keeps opening the lid.
+			say("woken or moved — trying again now")
 		case <-time.After(wait):
 		}
 		if wait *= 2; wait > most {
diff --git a/packaging/nox-mesh-host-network.sh b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-network.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..31eff2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-network.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Rouse the host when this machine's network changes.
+#
+# Installed as a NetworkManager dispatcher script (/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d) and as a
+# networkd-dispatcher one. Both hand the interface and the event as arguments; both are ignored
+# beyond the event, because *which* interface changed does not matter — what matters is that a
+# connection opened over the old route is now pointing at nothing, and that is true whichever
+# interface it was.
+#
+# A machine that moves from wifi to ethernet holds a socket that looks perfectly healthy from
+# inside the process: no error, no close, because nothing has tried to send anything. Heartbeats
+# find it twenty or thirty seconds later. The machine knew immediately.
+set -eu
+
+event="${2:-}"
+case "$event" in
+  up|dhcp4-change|dhcp6-change|connectivity-change|routes-change)
+    # Only events that can change where packets go. `down` is deliberately not one: the link is
+    # already gone, reconnecting will fail, and the backoff exists for exactly that.
+    systemctl start --no-block nox-mesh-host-roused.service 2>/dev/null || true
+    ;;
+esac
diff --git a/packaging/nox-mesh-host-resume.service b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-resume.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bba7d2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-resume.service
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Rouse the host when this machine wakes.
+#
+# After sleep.target rather than before: the point is to act once the machine is back, and a
+# signal sent on the way down would be read by a process that is about to be frozen with it.
+[Unit]
+Description=Rouse the Novox Mesh host after resume
+After=suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target suspend-then-hibernate.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'systemctl start --no-block nox-mesh-host-roused.service'
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target suspend-then-hibernate.target
diff --git a/packaging/nox-mesh-host-roused.service b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-roused.service
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..807cf77
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/nox-mesh-host-roused.service
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# Tell the running host that this machine's link is probably stale.
+#
+# **A laptop knows it just woke; the link does not.** After a resume the socket looks perfectly
+# healthy from inside the process — no error, no close, because nothing has tried to send
+# anything. Heartbeats discover it twenty or thirty seconds later, and for that time the node
+# believes it is in a mesh it has left.
+#
+# A signal rather than anything that listens: nothing may listen on a node (novox/hq ADR 0004),
+# and a socket for this would be a control surface on every machine in exchange for saving twenty
+# seconds.
+[Unit]
+Description=Tell the Novox Mesh host its link may be stale
+
+[Service]
+Type=oneshot
+# Nothing to do if the host is not running: this is a hint to a process, not a way to start one.
+ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'systemctl is-active --quiet nox-mesh-host.service && systemctl kill --signal=SIGHUP nox-mesh-host.service || true'
diff --git a/packaging/roused_test.sh b/packaging/roused_test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..00df906
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packaging/roused_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# The dispatcher script rouses on the events that change where packets go, and on nothing else.
+#
+# Checked by running it with a stub systemctl on PATH, because the thing worth testing is which
+# events it acts on — a script that rouses on `down` would reconnect into a network that is gone,
+# and one that rouses on nothing is the timeout it was written to avoid.
+set -eu
+
+here=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)
+work=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$work"' EXIT
+
+mkdir -p "$work/bin"
+cat > "$work/bin/systemctl" <<'STUB'
+#!/bin/sh
+echo "$@" >> "$ROUSED_LOG"
+STUB
+chmod +x "$work/bin/systemctl"
+export PATH="$work/bin:$PATH"
+export ROUSED_LOG="$work/rousings"
+: > "$ROUSED_LOG"
+
+for event in up dhcp4-change connectivity-change routes-change; do
+  sh "$here/nox-mesh-host-network.sh" wlan0 "$event"
+done
+count=$(grep -c "nox-mesh-host-roused" "$ROUSED_LOG" || true)
+if [ "$count" -ne 4 ]; then
+  echo "FAIL: four events that change where packets go roused $count time(s)" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+: > "$ROUSED_LOG"
+for event in down pre-up hostname ""; do
+  sh "$here/nox-mesh-host-network.sh" wlan0 "$event"
+done
+if [ -s "$ROUSED_LOG" ]; then
+  echo "FAIL: an event that does not change where packets go roused the host:" >&2
+  cat "$ROUSED_LOG" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "the dispatcher rouses on route changes and nothing else"