No incoming connections

[TwizeeK]

First of all thank you for reading my post.

I have been using uTorrent for some time now. I have noticed a problem with both uTorrent 1.8 and 1.8.1 that seems to intermittently prevent my client from receiving incoming connections. I have the yellow exclamation icon; however, when I use the uTorrent port checker via the speed test guide, the uTorrent website indicates that the port (10315) is open. 3rd-party port checking websites also indicate an open port.

Logger shows the following errors:

[time] <peerip:port>: Disconnect: Peer error: offline (timed out)

[time] <peerip:port>: Disconnect: Connection closed

[time] Incoming connection from <peerip:port>

[time] <peerip:port>: [clientinfo]: Encrypted handshake completed

[time] <peerip:port>: [clientinfo]: Disconnect: Connection closed

The incoming connection ports seem to be random, instead of the fixed port I have mapped. I'm not sure if that's significant. The outgoing connections ports are always random and I believe that's normal. Prior to upgrading to version 1.8, I was using version 1.7.7 (which worked normally). I then downgraded to version 1.6 (after uninstalling utorrent, deleting directories, etc...) which I used with great results until version 1.8.1 was out of beta. I then clean installed uTorrent again, hoping the bug from 1.8 had been addressed; uTorrent worked normally for several weeks, then I started getting the errors noted above, along with the exclamation icon.

My anti-virus/firewall is Live OneCare. My windows version is XP Pro SP3 (with all available updates). I have manually mapped the port withing OneCare's firewall settings, and have also mapped the port manual on my Apple Airport Extreme (draft-n) router. There are currently no entries for uTorrent within OneCare's automatic firewall settings, as the port has been manually opened. None of this has changed between the versions of uTorrent I have tried. My incoming connections are limited to 4, 8 half-open connections, 100 global connections, etc...

Any ideas?

EDIT #1: After extensive testing, it appears that through the upgrades some preferences for individual torrents have been retained; such as upload bandwidth limitations. I have since upgraded back to 1.8.1 and I seem to have all of my bandwidth back; however, I still have the no incoming connections icon, even though I am uploading at the limit of my connection (200Kbps+). Only one torrent appears to be active, although several appear to have enough peers to warrant me seeding. Not sure if this is related to the fact that I have forced outgoing encryption but still allow legacy incoming.

EDIT #2: Download speeds seem reasonable as well (tested w/ Slackware DVD torrent); multiple torrents are now seeding with multiple peers connected. Still have the mysterious "No incoming connections" icon and errors.

[Ultima]

http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=258231#p258231

Tried some suggestions from here yet? If so, please provide the requested information. Thanks!