everytime I have tried to start a download, nothing happens and I get the same kind of error message : "[Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it"....am I missing something here or am I being stopped for some kind of reason?

What torrent are you trying to download? What client are you using (ie: bittorrent, utorrent, etc)?

have tried a whole host of torrents, eg, battlestar galactica(maelstrom) heroes(parasite) and the result is the same for each and every one of them, as described earlier. I am using Bittorent client, which successfully d/l the first torrent of Smallville that I requested but since then will not connect to anything ever.

Try downloading something off our tracker and see if you get the same error.

http://sharetv.org/live

tried that: spongebob squarepants 4x105, which was the smallest download, same error message:
"[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:33] DEBUG : created torrent, initializing
[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:33] DEBUG : _initialize: self.working_path=C:Documents and SettingsOwnerApplication DataBitTorrentincomplete1cd89ac8-5e5d
[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:33] DEBUG : _initialize: returned from Storage startup.
[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:34] DEBUG : starting torrent
[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:35] DEBUG : started torrent
[5.0.6 2007-03-17 20:48:35] WARNING : Problem connecting to tracker (http://tracker.sharetv.org/announce): [Errno 10061] No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it"
something very wrong going on?

In that case it must be a problem on your end, as our tracker does not have that error message.

* try installing uTorrent and see if you get the same error

* make sure your ports are open

* make sure you don't have any type of firewall program blocking bittorrent.

Thanks for your keeping up with me btw! Seems to be solved now, simply my firewall! Could`nt believe it, as soon as I disabled it, no problem. Yet it had given no indication of any kind of "problem" or indeed any notification whatsoever....don`t quite understand that but at least its working ! Thanks for your input!