The Gnucleus connections report fewer hosts and transfer less messages but they can often be very good connections. Are you sure that your searches are getting worse?

You say you 'can't download a thing'. Is this actual experience or a guess based on the number of hosts reported?

In other words - there is nothing wrong with the Gnucleus hosts (and I think that Morpheus is based on the Gnucleus code - so is probably also OK).

It is, of course, more difficult to know when you have a good selection of hosts...

Mark