[Foxtorrent][1], a new Firefox add-on brings bittorrent support to the ever-extendable browser. Released yesterday by Red Swoosh, the new Firefox add-on allows users to download bittorrent files from within the browser. Foxtorrent is cross platform with versions for Mac, Linux and Windows.

Fox torrent has enormous potential, it can eliminate some of the headaches of torrent downloading since it auto-configs for NATS, firewalls, and uPNP. Foxtorrent is unobtrusive and all downloading happens in the background. Foxtorrent can even continue downloading torrents even after Firefox is closed. 

Unfortunately, in its current state, Foxtorrent feels like a beta rushed out the door. Testing on Windows revealed a serious memory leak that quickly swallowed my RAM and froze the browser. Strangely I didn't have the same issue on the Mac, but it was serious enough for me to uninstall the plugin. The memory leak issue is [noted on the Foxtorrent site][2].

The other main problem with Foxtorrent is that it doesn't recognize downloads from many torrent sites. 

In Foxtorrent, torrent files are downloaded using the Red Swoosh server, but the server can't handle SSL-secured torrent trackers, which severely limits the number of available torrents. For instance, Foxtorrent users can't download anything from Bittorrent.com.

I also had problems with Foxtorrent recognizing certain files as torrents. Many torrent links I tested just downloaded as regular files and were never intercepted by Foxtorrent.

Given the number of issue I experience in a couple hours of testing I can't recommend Foxtorrent just yet, however, Foxtorrent has great potential. 

Foxtorrent is open source (MIT license) and as such I expect that improvements will be forthcoming, however, for the time being, I recommend holding off on Foxtorrent.

[1]: http://www.foxtorrent.com/ "Foxtorrent"
[2]: http://code.google.com/p/foxtorrent/issues/detail?id=3&can=2&q= "Memory Leak"