Ted, I double checked and I am positive that my UPnP (and SSDP) WinXP services are disabled. But Azureus is running as a type, with green lights, and the NAT check shows that the port I use is open. I think the statement in one of those links you posted, that you must have UPnP running on your WinXP computer is not entirely accurate. Unfortunately I can't find anything conclusive about this issue. I did find one site a few days ago, which I can't find now, that talked about how UPnP should only be running at the hardware level so there is little need to have it running as a WinXP service.

Dextrous, did you look at the UPnP log in Azureus? (Plugins > UPnP). It will give you some information on what's going on. I know that with my router I was able to get Azureus to map a port without even turning UPnP on in my router. BUT I do have it running now because BitTornado's UPnP feature didn't work unless I had UPnP enabled in my router. I had to set it to Internet Gateway Device.