Program locks up--the status bar reads 'connecting to localhost'. I can't do anything with the program. I turned off my firewall, disabled AV, and still the program does not work -- any ideas?

I don't know where the BOINC people are, so I'll fill in for the moment.

BOINC is in two parts:
The worker daemon, which you can't see, and the gui, or Manager, which you can see, and which displays to you what the worker is doing.

These two parts talk via a port, called localhost for the computer which you're using, and remotehost for others that you may connect to via this computer.
Usually, there are two messages, displayed in the bottom right hand side of the Manager window. This will either say: Connected to localhost, or it will say Disconnected from localhost. (I'm not sure about this one, because it's only happened to me once, and that was a long time ago.)
I haven't heard of Connecting ... other than as a transitory message.

The 2 things that I know about that stop the connection are:
1) a Windows program grabbing the port before BOINC gets to it. This should be cured in the latest versions, with a new port.
2) A firewall program blocking it. ZoneAlarm is a commomn culprit here.

A re-boot often cures 1), and adjusting the configuration the 2nd.