It might be that the backup servers that has been setup by geonames folks, are not supporting all features, like search for example.
However, it should be only temporary, because as soon as they clear up the issue with that rougue iPhone application, it should go back to normal with the standard server.
You can control the connection with the new XPOI fix, by editing its config file, located at
%APPDATA%\Virtuali\XPOI.ini
By changing the order of the various URLs found there, you change the order that XPOI connects to the servers. XPOI starts from the first URL and, if that server is down, it tries the next one. NOTE: if a server is down and the next one is alive, XPOI will automatically rearrange the ULRs order in the INI file so, the next time, it will not have to look again for a server that was down the last time, speeding up the first connection.
The regular server is ws.geonames.org, the ones with the numbers (ws2 and ws5) are the backup servers.