Can't get thru Port, or Firewall

[odeho19]

1st here is my System Details:
SYSTEM DETAILS FOR ODEHO19

1) Vista Ultimate
2) Windows
3) 2GB
4) 1.71GB
5) Cable
6) Motorola SB5101
7) Apartment
8) LW 5.2.13 & Java 1.6.0_14
9) Comcast
10) "Your test worked"
11) No sharing
12) I uninstalled my V.4, and installed this one, and
now can not connect with LW. Program installed fine,
however now "You are a leaf node, You are behind a
firewall and do not support firewall transfers."
13) NO
14) Unsure about port forwarding vs. UPnP enabled.
15) AVG free is my security program
16) Living in USA
17) As explained above, I updated my version of LW

Alright, got that out of the way. Maybe this has been covered somewhere else, & maybe not. I LOOKED!!! I read more junk that made no sense to me what so ever. My old version of LW worked just fine until recently. I hadn't used it in a few months, and so I uninstalled it, and the installed the new version. Now I have a "connecting" message at the bottom of my screen, ( no firewall icon), and a message at the top stating that "LW will start when it finishes connecting". If someone can direct me to a post that will explain how I can connect to LW through a port, set up an exception, or whatever else it is that I need to do, this would be VERY helpful. I haven't changed anything from when I used my old version of LW til now. It used to work just fine, and now everything is all screwed up, and it doesn't work at all. I didn't have to manually set up anything. I'm not opposed to doing it, I just didn't have to before, so now I don't know how to. I can provide screen shots of anything that may be needed if this will help.

Also, as an aside, How do I get rid of all that useless junk at the top of EVERY PAGE I try to get info from. (IE the "forum rules", the "moderators",) I've posted on probably a dozen forum sites, and I've never seen so much worthless garbage as I have here. Do I honestly have to scroll through this stuff everytime I want to get to what I WANT TO SEE?

Anyways, THANKS for your time!
Odean