diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
index c73c44e2..35974f80 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 ### Enhancements
 
+* **relay** the listen backlog default got increased from 3 to 32
+
 ### Bugfixes
 
 * [Issue #188](https://github.com/grobian/carbon-c-relay/issues/188)
@@ -15,6 +17,8 @@
   race condition in aggregator leads to crash
 * [Issue #195](https://github.com/grobian/carbon-c-relay/issues/195)
   assertion fails when reloading config
+* [Issue #203](https://github.com/grobian/carbon-c-relay/issues/203)
+  change default connection listen backlog
 
 # 2.1 (16-06-2016)
 
diff --git a/relay.c b/relay.c
index 48a6ae6f..f0309c0b 100644
--- a/relay.c
+++ b/relay.c
@@ -311,7 +311,7 @@ do_usage(int exitcode)
 	printf("  -q  server queue size, defaults to %d\n", queuesize);
 	printf("  -L  server max stalls, defaults to %d\n", maxstalls);
 	printf("  -S  statistics sending interval in seconds, defaults to 60\n");
-	printf("  -B  connection listen backlog, defaults to 3\n");
+	printf("  -B  connection listen backlog, defaults to 32\n");
 	printf("  -T  IO timeout in milliseconds for server connections, defaults to %d\n", iotimeout);
 	printf("  -m  send statistics like carbon-cache.py, e.g. not cumulative\n");
 	printf("  -c  characters to allow next to [A-Za-z0-9], defaults to -_:#\n");
@@ -336,7 +336,7 @@ main(int argc, char * const argv[])
 	int dgram_socklen = sizeof(dgram_sock) / sizeof(dgram_sock[0]);
 	char id;
 	unsigned short listenport = 2003;
-	unsigned int listenbacklog = 3;
+	unsigned int listenbacklog = 32;
 	int ch;
 	size_t numaggregators;
 	char *listeninterface = NULL;