diff --git a/internal/auth/auth.go b/internal/auth/auth.go
index 92eb22e..5bc0a88 100644
--- a/internal/auth/auth.go
+++ b/internal/auth/auth.go
@@ -318,11 +318,10 @@ func (s *Sessions) RevokeOthers(user, keep string) int {
 // RevokeUser ends every session of user (the account is going away).
 func (s *Sessions) RevokeUser(user string) { s.RevokeOthers(user, "") }
 
-// Limiter is a single global backoff: after 5 failures, each further failure
-// doubles a lockout starting at 30s, capped at 10 minutes. Single-user box.
 // Limiter locks out a client after repeated failed logins, per client address, with a
 // global backstop so a botnet can't burn CPU on argon2 indefinitely. A lockout for one
-// address never blocks another.
+// address never blocks another. Past perClientLock failures, each further failure doubles a
+// lockout starting at 30s, capped at 10 minutes.
 type Limiter struct {
 	mu      sync.Mutex
 	clients map[string]*bucket
@@ -338,7 +337,11 @@ type bucket struct {
 var ErrLocked = errors.New("too many failed logins")
 
 const (
-	perClientLock = 5   // failures before a client is locked
+	// perClientLock is how many failures one address gets before it is made to wait. Set high
+	// on purpose: a guest login is a generated password read off a message and typed by hand
+	// on a phone, and being locked out for fumbling it is worse than the brute-force risk —
+	// which the doubling backoff past this point, and the global backstop, still cover.
+	perClientLock = 20
 	globalLock    = 100 // failures (all clients) in the window before everyone waits a minute
 	globalWindow  = 5 * time.Minute
 )