1. Browse host has never been reliable. Sometimes it seems to show a result of a browse but actually did not find all their files. This has been a problem since LW 4, some browses would show zero files, or a repeat search of them 10 mins later might show 500 and one 10 mins later 200 files. So browse host has never been a reliable test of whether people are sharing or not, unfortunately. Browsing uploaders has always been harder for some reason then those you are downloading from or in search results. I have had successes with it but very hit n miss.

2. I've never tried myself.