Scrolling zooms faster than it should I'm relatively new to blender and now face a navigation/viewing issue.
When I scroll it doesnt scroll like it normally would when you start a blank file. When I do nothing but scroll to zoom in and out it moved in and out way more than it should making it close to impossible to get to where I want to be. 

Another, possibly related, problem appears when i'm moving the view in any way it starts to merge into the model showing me the inside. This is also the main reason in asking because its hard to get to that one point to be able move it to the right spot.
Select the objects or objects of interest.
Press Numpad .
(that is the period on the numpad)
Menu and Space bar alternatives which present a puzzle for me.

For blender 2.8-2.9:
The same action is now called &quot;Frame Selected&quot; and can be found in the view-menu of the 3d-viewport. The shortcut remains the same though.