For anybody with the issue with connecting to peers, this worked for me on windows 10 and mac os:
To resolve:
(1) go to
http://hplorer.com/peers(2) open a shell and try to ping the hosts on the peer list ("ping xxx.xxx.xx.xx") until you find one that does not time out:
_MacBook-Pro:~ dump_rat$ ping 116.122.128.49
PING 116.122.128.49 (116.122.128.49): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 116.122.128.49: icmp_seq=0 ttl=40 time=249.023 ms
64 bytes from 116.122.128.49: icmp_seq=1 ttl=40 time=224.698 ms
64 bytes from 116.122.128.49: icmp_seq=2 ttl=40 time=255.991 ms_
^Z
(3) open your launch script and add parameter to force peer (use the value in the "connection string" column for the valid host you previously pinged).
./hycon --api --api_port=2442 --peer 116.122.128.49:63975 --cpuMiners=1 $@
After forcing the connection to one peer, other peers were discovered and I was synced in ~10 mins or so.