I also tried to just use USB, thinking it may be some networking issue, but all that does is find the player and then give me an error that there doens't appear to be a player connected.

Caveat: I have never used the Windows software at all, ever. I did see an error like this with a JEmplode that was for an older version of the player software than I had at the time. Did you try the 1.03 software via USB with newer player software, or did you try "current" software via USB?

Other ideas:
-try JEmplode (via ethernet)
-install HiJack and then try JEmplode