>As for download speeds, you must know that the Gnutella network is very decentralized, and as such very unreliable. Also because it is so decentralized, you are very likely connecting to computers far away (as in other continents) and it can take a while for the data to travel that far. This might be helped by connecting to the group that corresponds to your continent in the Community tab. <

Thanks for the insight David!
Once I click on N. America (in my case), in the "community" tab, do I push the connect button from that page and then go back to the "search" tab and start my search? I'm also wondering if that cancels out the default host? I really appreciate your help!
Jessie