First thing to do is to get a functional wallet that will sync, without having to add nodes, and go in to %appdata% every time its opened. Now, that would be a great place to start. Its hard to want to mine, or trade this coin when there is so much concern if you will even be able to receive the coins.
I only had to edit the wallet configuration file in %appdata% once. I edited it with some peers from the block explorer, and it's been smooth sailing with plenty of connected peers every time i start the wallet.