In respnse to the first user who has had trouble connecting, I think this is related to a more general connection problem, and not specifically related to supernodes. We took out some of the "quick connect hosts" from the supernode beta and added a supernode to that list, as we wanted to increase the likelihood that you would get connected to the supernode.

I would recommend restarting LimeWire, as the code for connecting to other users can sometimes sort of get "stuck" in a waiting state. We're going to look into this code again as soon as possible.

We definitely do see supernodes as the future of Gnutella. They allow the network to function for more efficiently, with far less messaging required across the network to search for files and to connect. With this technology, Gnutella will be able to "scale" to at least the size of FastTrack. It should significantly increase the number and quality of search results.

Thanks to everyone for trying the beta!