The link you sent me to to set up static ipaddress says I shouldn't have to pay for it. My ISP (ATT&T) says otherwise. Next?

Also, I got into my router a bit through a web connection for it, but all the info scares me a bit. I REALLY don't want to lose my protection.

You did get something wrong: you don't need an excternal static IP (for which you would have to pay your ISP) but an internal static IP. Use the guide I have written that can be downloaded over here (magnet link; you need Shareaza running to download):
Shareaza install guide

Also, do a connection test (via Help>>Connection test...) in order to check your connectivity.

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</td><td><a href="http://crawler.trillinux.org"><img align="right" style="border:0" src="http://crawler.trillinux.org/img/netsize.png" alt="Network size"></a></td></table>