Azureus v2.5.0.4 (the former name for Vuze)

With 10.3.9 - which I still use day-to-day - you're limited by the awful version of Java - full of memory leaks too. But I use Azureus to get my fix of Lost / 24 / CSI / etc, and it works fine, although I reboot about once a fortnight to free up memory. My Mac Pro gets rebooted maybe once a year in comparison.

I'm sure that v2.5.0.4 is on sourceforge, otherwise someone might have to post it here as abandonware.

but when i try to download it, instead of downloading it opens a web page with tonnes of characters that just crash my web browser.

If that happens you may have to right-click the dl link, choosing "Save as..."

Also, you should try an older version of transmission bt client, Just google "Transmission mac os 10.3"

I use 10.3.9 and only Bittorrent work for me

http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/download/directory-list

You can try very old trnasimission for Panter:
http://download.m0k.org/transmission/files/Transmission-0.6.1.dmg

Transmission is (in my opinion) the best torrent client there is!
It gets the job done with no fancy shmancy stuff

yea, though that old version of Transmission isn't the best. I'd probably recommend Bittorrent Mainline (the one TataMisia recommended), or alternatively Azureus 2.5.0.4 (though that's also falling out of favor).

Azureus named Vuze now.
Hmmm... Hard to find old versions

http://www.oldapps.com/azureus.php

Tomato Torrent still has the download links for the version that runs on 10.2 and 10.3, just throwing another option out there

Yep, honestly try each for a while and decide what killer features are what you need. I'm sure most of the current torrent clients have all the really useful features, but 5-6 years ago - the versions you'll want for OSX 10.3 - it was a different story, LimeWire and Direct Connect was all the rage.
I couldn't manage without the Azureus file selection and restart functionality.

I recommend Transmission - fast, simple - done!

Glad to here that you found a torrent app that works for you

-nmz502

Greeting and MACutations to all

Man! Finally have found a site to address my torrent issues. Being that this is my first post, I'm using a Mac G3 (PowerPC 750 w/896Mb ram) running OS X 10.3.9 connected to a DSL line. Until recently I was using limewire 5.5.8 for the majority of my downloads on a E-Machine (AMD LE-2100 w/2Gb ram) running Windows XP_SP2, which was fine (although, I constantly get "No, internet connection" message in the bottom left-hand corner and, have to close and restart the "app" more often than not) because, PC limewire 5.5.8 worked with the torrent protocol -- something that "Mac" limewire 4.12 does not do... Anyway, it occurred to me that the Mac platform had to have a means to download torrents so, I researched and found several clients. Longer story short... I got BitTorent 4.27.2 to install under OS X 10.3.9 (I refuse to pay to ever upgrade again! I think ) BitTorrent worked at first but slowly. Tweaked it and it got better. Downloaded a total of three maybe four good torrents -- and, nothing after that All I get now is "On-line, maybe firewalled". I tried everything I could think of to get it to resume operation again -- including reinstallation. Still nothin'. Now, I know from observation of my PC that some "Torrents" can take time, days or even weeks to complete but, BitTorrent isn't even trying to download anymore, so here I am.

My question is... Did anyone else have this same exact problem? And, did switching to a different "client" (Azureus/Vuze, Tomato?) actually solve your download and, or connectivity problems?

Thanks a bunch
ZNOP

The firewall is probably in your DSL modem / router. You need to set up port-forwarding on the modem to send all incoming traffic on a certain port (chosen by you and set in your BitTorrent prefs) to a particular machine (ie. through the firewall).