deleted the block .dat files (not the wallet.dat) in user profile folder and added -rescan to startup. it finally found 1 connection and starting to download. thanks for the hints posted by others.

I’m having the same problem. The status bar says zero connections to feathercoin network. My inbound firewall rules allow the client to connect on private networks which I’m on. Are there supposed to be any outbound rules? I don’t see any for the FT client.