You're right, it WAS easier back in the day. The trouble we've had getting Borderlands multiplayer going is something I never saw before.
See, that's the other thing.
Borderlands' PC-base online got split pretty badly b/c its GameSpy implementation out-the-box was bugged for most people - unless you DMZ'ed your PC. I couldn't get it going on G-Spy, until Gearbox patched the thing up - some few months later.
By that time Gearbox dropped that patch, most BL PC gamers were already using GameRanger, a 3rd party on their own unofficially who decided to step-up and support gamers until Gearbox tried ironing things out. There were hundreds of BL PC servers going on GR; while you were lucky if you saw 5 servers on G-Spy and REAL lucky if yoy could get it going there. I jumped on G-Spy the other day and G-Ranger, to see how many BL games were going - about 30 on GR, 30 on GameSpy...