Just to chime in here, we are not certain why these problems have all been popping up with 1.7, as we did not modify that section of the code significantly at all.

We are looking into general connection issues, however. We are also working on a change to the network infrastructure that will dramatically increase the number of search results you will receive while simultaneously reducing network traffic and improving the ability to connect to the network.

In short, my apologies for the current frustrations, but I assure you that we are working very hard on some changes to the network that we really think will surprise you.

The information everyone has provided has been helpful, and keep it coming in. We should have this fixed in the next release.