have you tried syncing without going through tor?
i upgraded to v.8 without any trouble
also if both computers arnt syncing and your not using tor then id imaging your ISP really hates P2P connections and is limiting them to and extreme state you could try
http://proxpn.com/ get a free VPN very very slow but free is free
as to 1 there are ways to do it but it is pretty anoying its easier trying to figure out how to get your wallet to sync
also dont forget to back up your wallet with money in it just incase something does go wrong