First of all, if you have 15 connections, you are running the old 0.2 version.
Check the new 0.3 out.
Second: Port forwarding isn't necessary for generating, receiving or sending coins.
Third: It's pretty hard to generate any coins at the moment, so I guess you won't have any problem there, its normal.
Forth: For setting up multiple machines, check this thread
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54.0