when i try to upload the wallet.dat to blockchain.info it keeps telling me "connection refused".

You would do well not to take advice from anybody that has an advertisement in their signature space on this forum.

The vast majority of those are people that are being paid per post to advertise with those signature.  Therefore, they'll say just about anything in a discussion thread just to increase their post count.  Generally, they know less about the topic they are discussing than the person asking the questions.

If you want to get access to the Bitcoin Core private key for the address that you used:

Choose the "Help" Menu.
Choose the "Debug Window" option.
Choose the "Console" in the Debug Window.

Type:


In the console window, you will see a string of letters and numbers about 52 characters long.

It will either start with a 'K' or 'L' (it could start with a '5' but this is VERY unlikely unless you are running an old version of Bitcoin Core).

That is your private key.

DO NOT ALLOW ANYBODY ACCESS to that private key.  Anyone that can access that private key can spend your bitcoins without your permission.

Many wallet programs provide a method to import private keys. If you choose to use some other wallet program, you'll need to learn how the program that you choose imports keys.  You can then import the private key into the new wallet program and access your bitcoins.