1)
No specific opinion about this one, but a general one. Most Gnutella clients try to perform at their best for the benefit of the whole network if configured properly. The download speed depends on many factors which can only be influenced by yourself to a limited extend by opening more half-open connections or some MS third party patches. If everyone tried to use some perfomance enhancment patches like that one to increase their download speed, the network as a whole would slow down to a craw. For the whole network such patches are rather contra-productive IMO.
2)
Not that I know of......
