Last week I downloaded and installed Noblecoin wallet v2.0.4.0 on a pc that stakes other wallets and have not been able to get any connections.
Does it require nodes in a conf file?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I ve never had any problem with connections. what your describing suggests to me its being blocked by firewall or virus program maybe. Other than that try to save your wallet .dat delete everything reinstall. let us know if any or this helped. Fish

i don t suggest doing that
its valid addresses and valid coin in there

everything else about the troubles who owns them and who can access them
is not business of coin devs

DMD Diamond too have 1% of total coins at cryptsy cold wallet
but we would never ever consider declare them invalid coins

the blockchain is the enviroment the tool
but not the judge to decide what are good or bad coins
just what coins are valid and what transactions are valid

and from that perspective the mintpal and cryptsy coins are valid created and valid transfered

that they now stuck in limbo with unclear state who have access to the wallet private keys
is not a issue that is business of wallet devs

It is difficult to say what will happen to Noblecoin's wallet at cryptsy. Last thing I read stated company was put into receivership and currently court controls it. It is possible court-appointed monitor will find altcoin wallets and at some point in the future coins will be returned to their owners.

Cryptsy's webpage and wiki are not reachable now, while blog still works.

I sent you the 750k community fund, did you get it?

I may be wrong but I think at some point Cryptsy was staking Noblecoin's. Maybe not on all their addresses but they wanted to make another revenue stream. Which is perfectly valid IMO since this helps securing network.

Increase in staking - before promotion about 16% coins were being staked. Then it went up to 19%. Right now it is back at 16.6%.

Increase in difficulty - before promotion the medium average on diff chart was around 2.50. Then it went up and right now is somewhere between 3-4 so there is improvement on this front. Please take a look at chart https://chainz.cryptoid.info/nobl/#@diff

I have added community fund as amount pledged towards Bounty #9. Does anyone object? https://github.com/eagleflies/noblecoin/wiki/Bounties

Is anyone else willing to back this idea?

No, you're right. Everyone in such a situation can "fix" his/her wallet by moving coins. But some people complain about it.