Vista - ares wouldn't connect to network from vista

i've been using ares for awhile now, most of it was on Winxp... now i
just got a new laptop with windows vista home premium on it...

i have put the ares program in the exception list on my winxp firewall
but still no luck on the program connecting to the p2p network

am i missing something here? does window defender stop programs from
accessing the net? i do have norton internet security running but have
disabled both its firewall and windows just to see if ares would work

also i'm not too sure about the ares compatibility with vista but i
downloaded the laters version... 2.0.9

has anyone come across this problem? or used ares with vista?