I have been using Torrent for a while and decided to try zonealarm free version after a complete system re-install (it had been 2 years...).
Anyway SW firewalls present no issue for Torrent, once you give BT permission it can open all ports.
But with the current free version of ZoneAlarm Connection would ramp up for about 4 minutes often getting to 50KB/s dl in that time, then it would ramp down right to ZERO up, Zero down.
Then the computer would be in bad shape, starting or closing applications not working properly. It took me forever to figure out it was a bad DLL or something in ZA. As disabling ZA didn't make any difference. Only after uninstally ZA did the problem clear. I am now using Sygates free firewall without issue.
Peter (
guidryp@yahoo.com)