Hey all ... LW newbie here ... the subject (Title) issue has become annoying enough that I shall try to remedy before moving on to another MP3 player front-end ...

1. Vista Home Premium SP2 - using Admin account
2. ZA Free 8.0.298.000
3. 3GB RAM
4. 308GB avail of 456GB cap sys part on int SATA II HDD
5. 3Mbps ADSL broadband conn
6. Thomson speedtouch ST516 v6 ADSL 2+ modem / Linksys BEFW11S4 V4 Wireless-B broadband router (WRT54G V8 avail)
7. conn from home
8. LW 5.1.3 / Java 1.6.0_17
9. ISP is TELUS.net
10. 6346 port test result: 'Your test worked!' / FYI - my LW Listening Port is 10221 and Router Configuration is Use UPnP11. conn shared with multiple PCs & conn's thru Siemens SE567 internet gateway in use as a hub / DHCP server / Wireless-G WAP
12. new to LW (& other audio P2P / jukebox proggys) but otherwise experienced PC user
13. definately behind ZA s/w firewall
14. no Port Forwarding in use / UPnP not enabled at router (is latter the problem?)
15. AVG A/V Free 8.5, Spybot S&D 1.6.2.46, Malwarebytes 1.44, Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free 8.0.8, Windows firewall disabled
16. Canada
17. other than the endless updating on all fronts, no significant recent changes

Right out of the gate, thanks, however, I am not that interested in updating LW to latest version unless a version-specific issue matching mine can be cited.

Further to my issue, the periodic system freezing accompanied by audio feedback only lasts for a few seconds at a time, and, by 'audio feedback', I mean a pulsing bi-tone sound seemingly matching the song note being played at the point of freezing.

Previously, I had noticed that LW MP3 playback was sensitive to internet traffic activity by other proggys, ie. IE8 activity, however, the system freezing noted now was not occurring.

I am also wondering if this is a Vista issue (I gotta say, Vista impresses me less and less each and every day), or, if this is some h/w-specifc issue.

Thanks for any help offerred. FFF