to increase the speed of your downloads you could;

-set your client/servant to not share files
- if you want to share still, set it to a lower rate
-dont connect to hosts after creating a download list
-reduce other internet and computer use

these factors will all vary depend on your setup.

Remember its a good idea to share a little back to the network. Just leave your servant on and monitor the network. And keep yourself informed on gnutella in the news and read your softwares help files.

Also if your sharing, you could make sure your files are well named. And you could keep your number of searches to a reasonable amount.