I understand your frustration, personally I believe this is much more a firewall/port forwarding problem than something related to the aMule application itself.
Thank you so much for offering to help out.
Did you accidentally activate UPnP in connection preferences? Please could you post aMule's log here (removing any personal data before) ?
No, I don't believe I did. I have attached an image of this preference selection, although I'm unsure, before posting it, whether the image will be seen correctly in this post.
Here is the log generated WITHOUT adding aMule to System Preferences/Security/Firewall/Advanced
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Starting aMule 2.2.6 using wxMac v2.8.10
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Creditfile loaded, 0 clients are known
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Loading IP-filters 'ipfilter.dat' and 'ipfilter_static.dat'.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Loaded 0 IP-ranges from '/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/aMule/ipfilter.dat'. 0 malformed lines were discarded.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Loaded 0 IP-ranges from '/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/aMule/ipfilter_static.dat'. 0 malformed lines were discarded.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: External connections disabled in config file
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Created Server UDP-Socket at port 54665
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Created Client UDP-Socket at port 54672
2011-03-16 18:23:08: - This is aMule 2.2.6 using wxMac v2.8.10 based on eMule.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Running on Mac OS X (Darwin 10.6.0 i386)
2011-03-16 18:23:08: - Visit
http://www.amule.org to check if a new version is available.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Loaded 248 flag bitmaps.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Loading server.met file: /Users/myusername/Library/Application Support/aMule/server.met
2011-03-16 18:23:08: 13 servers in server.met found
2011-03-16 18:23:08: No part files found
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Found 68 known shared files
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Connecting
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Connecting to Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55 - 83.233.30.55:4500) using protocol obfuscation.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: ThreadScheduler: Completed task 'AICH Syncronizing', 0 tasks remaining.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Connected to Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55:4500)
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Connecting to !-= Porn Pit =-! (88.80.28.48 - 88.80.28.48:4321) using protocol obfuscation.
2011-03-16 18:23:08: Connected to !-= Porn Pit =-! (88.80.28.48:4321)
2011-03-16 18:23:09: Your copy of aMule is up to date.
2011-03-16 18:23:09: WARNING: Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55:4500) - NG : Your 54662 port is not reachable. Please review your network config.
2011-03-16 18:23:09: Connection established on: Master Server 1
2011-03-16 18:23:09: New clientid is 13265360
2011-03-16 18:23:09: WARNING: You have received Low-ID!
2011-03-16 18:23:09: Most likely this is because you're behind a firewall or router.
2011-03-16 18:23:09: For more information, please refer to
http://wiki.amule.orgHere is the log generated WITH adding aMule to System Preferences/Security/Firewall/Advanced
2011-03-16 18:34:50: Connecting
2011-03-16 18:34:50: Connecting to Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55 - 83.233.30.55:4500) using protocol obfuscation.
2011-03-16 18:34:50: Connected to Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55:4500)
2011-03-16 18:34:51: Connecting to !-= Porn Pit =-! (88.80.28.48 - 88.80.28.48:4321) using protocol obfuscation.
2011-03-16 18:34:51: Connected to !-= Porn Pit =-! (88.80.28.48:4321)
2011-03-16 18:34:51: WARNING: Master Server 1 (83.233.30.55:4500) - NG : Your 54662 port is not reachable. Please review your network config.
2011-03-16 18:34:51: Connection established on: Master Server 1
2011-03-16 18:34:51: New clientid is 13322212
2011-03-16 18:34:51: WARNING: You have received Low-ID!
2011-03-16 18:34:51: Most likely this is because you're behind a firewall or router.
2011-03-16 18:34:51: For more information, please refer to
http://wiki.amule.orgThis second log looks better than the first log. By including both, I'm hoping someone far more knowledgeable (not difficult) than I, may get a clue.
I have also attached a picture of what I put into the router configuration page, and the error message I get EVERY time I try to manually confirm the port I wish to forward/open. I don't understand this message at all, as I followed exactly the same process for another torrent client, Transmission, and the correct port was opened and forwarded immediately.