Yes, I still think it's Netscape that's the heart of the problem, as the tech support folks keep telling me the same things over and over. though, their most recent reply said there is some issue with something called the ActivityTimer and that they're working on it.
I think I'm going to give up on this for now while I try to become more torrent savy. It'll be less frustrating to not have to worry about it while just simply learning more. I may try another client, I notice lots of folks like Azureaus.

Note to PEPPER:just tried to PM you , but got the "Inbox has exceeded the allowed limit and cannot receive your message untill some space is cleared" dialog.