i just talked to chater, after running those tests listed above. they said that they are not intentionally blocking any ports, to their knowledge. When i click on the first test, it says that everything is working fine. when i click on the test to check specific ports, it tells me that every port is closed. i tried probably 100 random port numbers, and they're all closed according to the test, so i wonder how many ports are availible to begin with, or if maybe the test doesn't work.. i don't know. I redownloaded bearshare (older version) and bearstart, and have been having no problems. shareaza is fine too.