This may have been better as a follow-up to the Downloading Music thread, but it maybe warrants its own.

After reading the above thread, I downloaded and installed KaZaA. Someone also suggested that I use Ad-aware to get rid of the 'nasty' bits.

However, having had Ad-aware purge my system, KaZaA no longer worked. So I had to reinstall it and leave the 'suspect' files there.

According to spychecker.com the main concern about Spyware is that:

it still remains the fact, that you have a "live" server sitting on your PC that is sending information about you and your surfing habits to a remote location.....

To be honest, I couldn't care less who knows about my surfing habits, I have nothing nefarious to hide.

I also have a ZoneAlarm firewall, and every time a program asks to be able to act as a server, I say 'never' Does this stop the spyware working?

My main concerns are:

Will any outgoing information will slow my connection down?

Does 'spyware' make my machine more liable to being hacked?

Sorry if those are stupid questions, but I don't know the answers (so they're not stupid to me!)

Thanks

Jim