trap_jaw...

I appreciate your reply. While I'm by no means a P2P expert, I do realize Gnotella is old and lags in certain "more current" features.

What concerns me is the tone I percieved in the two posts I read here that continuing to use Gnotella was "bad for the network." Maybe I misunderstood the intent of the writers. But, things passed through my head like Gnotella possibly sucking the life out of the network, causing some kind of security problem, or...shoot, I don't know..."bad for the network" just sounds...bad.

I really want to know if there's more to it than just having an "old" program. I have always considered myself to be a good citizen of the network, and I don't want to cause it or its users harm in any way. I still really like Gnotella, and I don't notice any difference in my search results or in how many people seem to be taking and lining up for my shared files between it and the other programs I've tried (especially after I updated Gnotella's "Saved Hosts" with addresses I found in Shareaza).

If someone can show me some verifiable information on how Gnotella is or might be harmful to the health and welfare of the network and those who use it, I will gladly get rid of it and reinstall Shareaza (my favorite of the others I've tried, which include Gnucleus, BearShare, LimeWire, Xolox, and even WinMx). If not, I see no reason to change until I either find something I like better or Gnotella becomes so old and "un-updateable" that I have to abandon it.