Hi smokey,
It's possible that your ISP or admin is port-blocking Grok/Kaz, quite a common activity since these apps became so popular. I think the
other Smokey (smokestoomuch) had this problem when his university admin started blocking port 1214 to combat bandwidth-hogging by these filesharing apps.
Some people use 'http tunnelling' to get thru this kind of block, tho I've never had to try it myself. Here's one link re that:
http://www.nocrew.org/software/httptunnel.html
(And altho you personally may not have a firewall, if you're accessing via cable modem or LAN, a firewall might be being run by the admin of those.)
Also, I use
MorpheusX with Grokster to help with downloads and searches: its automated "Find More Sources" function helps get you connected to more supernodes for better results.
(MorfX is built into latest KazaaLite but it's renamed as "KazaaLite Plus")