Phex goes through the entire hosts cache and fails to connect to even a single host. The connections are being routed, they're not being blocked by my ISP at all, it's just that none of them allow a connection. This is a new installation of Phex. I've tried other Gnutella clients and have experienced the same problem. Is Gnutella obsolete or something?

I have no problems with connecting with Phex or other Gnutella programs. Sounds like the problem is at your end. Most likely router or firewall issue. But could also be an ISP issue too.

The Firewall service in my installation of XP is purposefully disabled, and my gateway doesn't block any outgoing ports of any kind either. <i>So far as I know</i> Comcast isn't blocking any ports or services either; note the qualifier there. I have not been able to confirm <i>or</i> deny (e.g., can't find any independent reports) that Comcast is using Sandvine or other technology to specifically block Gnutella traffic (bittorrent is working fine).

I'll note here that some hosts Phex attempts to connect to, rather than timing out, come back as explicitly refusing the connection.

OK, now all of the sudden, after DAYS of not connecting, it's connecting. Go figure.. thanks for the reply.