I'm using Bearshare 6.4.0.0 with a cable modem and a (Linksys) wireless router. After a couple of weeks of problem-free downloads, I haven't been able to download anything for over a month. Making the situation more confusing (for me, anyway) is that uploads from my library are no problem. Any ideas as to why this is happening and how I can fix it would be most appreciated.

Sounds like your ISP has shaped you.

Does this only happen with Bearshare or with explorer too?
Have you gone over your bandwidth limit? or
Does your ISP have a policy which restricts the use of p2p?

I suggest you speak with your ISP about this.

It does sound like an ISP issue. But then again, it might also be related to this: BearShare has been Sabotaged!

ISP's have a number of techniques. Shaping p2p bandwidth is one of them. Another is blocking such programs from connecting. Another is getting zero search results ... filtering the information.

You do know don't you that with a potential massive court case fine, BearShare sold out & is now owned by people who control the program & what it can do. See link above.

Apparently the problem is not with my ISP -- other Bearshare users who have the same ISP as I do, say that they don't have any problems with Bearshare. I also don't have problems with Explorer (or Mozilla), and I get plenty of search results on Bearshare. Any other ideas? Should I simply get rid of Bearshare and download something else? E-mule?

read the thread LOTR links to...in the first post Aaron gives a link for the expired BS beta and the BearStart utility...

uninstall your present version of BS, and go so far as to totally delete Program Files/BearShare...then install the beta version...run the beta version by double clicking the BearStart.exe file...actually what I did is to right click on the BearStart.exe and chose 'pin to start menu', and start it from there..