Hello again Sam
thanks for the info on connections--makes more sense now.
Looks like my previous crash is related to my IPNet Router software, but it will take quite a while to be certain. My ISP was able to confirm that the DNS servers, the neighbourhood cable network, and my modem have run uninterrupted for the past 10 hours, yet all three of our machines suddenly couldn't connect again [hmm--LimeWire just unexpectedly quit on this machine G3/ OK on the other--lots of JVM_GetMethodIxExceptionTableEntry in the crash log. Anyone want it?]

As I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, suddenly all three machine couldn't connect, two of them showed Console entries of
lookupd[291]: DNSAgent: dns_send_query_server - send failed. Two of them were running the beta; the other wasn't. For some reason, the G3 has been trying to maintain 15 host connections (often an additional 6 or so are trying to connect); the G4 tries to keep 3 over and above the local IP. Does that make any sense to you?

IPNet Router runs on an old Mac IIci that controls the two ethernet cards. I haven't touched it for two or more years, other than to push the power button after an outage. Before I look at it, I'll have to drag out an old monitor/keyboard/ etc and see if there are some settings to play with. That's a job for next weekend, but by then 2.9.0 will probably change.

Cheers--and by the way, the autocomplete search feature is a nice touch.