Is it me or has gnutella been deteriorating up to the point where a connection is just impossible? I have a cable modem and in the past I was quite happy with gnutella even though it was not always easy to connect. But now I can't connect at all. Is this the result of some internal g-net problem (like we had with the original Gnutella-Client v.056)?

It must be you. Gnutella is alive, well and growing in a healthy manner; that doesn't mean the network and software are without problems, however.
I've installed most of the active Gnutella clients and a few of the inactive ones like Newtella and Furi. I've encountered delays in connection time, but, within a reasonable period of time, I've always been able to establish a connection and share files using all of them.
I'm riding an antique Pentium 166 (no MMX) with only 32 Mb RAM; sometimes execution is painful, but a DSL connection has given my ugly beige monster an extension to its useful life.
I would suggest disabling your firewall and any ad blocking software during Gnutella sessions.

I use Zonealarm quite a bit, and don't notice a really big number of illicit hits on my connection as a result of being on the gnutella network.

But I have disabled Zonaelarm on several occasions, and have seen an increase in the number of connections and the size of shared files; in the neighborhood of 25-50%.

> Gnutella is alive, well and growing in a healthy manner;

That's not true, Gnutella is alive but constantly shrinking since July '01. A lot of other file sharing apps appear to be more interesting for users.
http://www.limewire.com/index.jsp/size

I don´t know which Gnutella you mean?

I use also ZA and "i have noticed" several hundreds of port scans etc., so if you want to disable your firewall do it... but do not suggest this to newbies!

Morgwen