I also had connection problems the last couple of days. I downloaded a new hosts.txt file and I could run Gnotella normally again. And I did it a few hours ago, therefore the network is not down.
You can download the hosts.txt file from http://www.gnotella.com/helpfile/connectproblem.phtml and you can find more info on Gnotella Forums.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"