utorrent still downloads with bad/bogus proxy ip?

[Fatfantasma]

Please help me understand exactly how the proxy works in utorrent.

I setup a proxy in utorrent using a proxy IP from www.hidemyass.com. Everything seems to work fine. However, what happens when the proxy IP becomes invalid? Does utorrent just stop because the proxy is invalid or does it just ignore a bad proxy and then just use whatever connection is on by default.

I have ran some tests to see how utorrent behaves under certain circumstances.

1) I have put in a bogus proxy IP and utorrent still works.

2) I have put in my friends home IP (just a valid IP, no proxy setup) as a proxy IP and utorrent still works

This is all a little confusing for me since I would think doing #1 or #2 would stop utorrent in it's tracks.

Could someone please why utorrent still downloads with a proxy set to a bogus or invalid IP?

thanks