Welcome to the forum, @Lacona!
The terminal has a bit of a learning curve at first, but if you take a little time to learn how it works, it's not so scary. 
The best advice I can give you is this:
- Try things!
- ...and make sure to back up your computer regularly.
It takes a little while to learn what different applications do. If you pay close attention, and only use trustworthy sources when selecting new commands to run, it's pretty hard to break your computer. And if you do break it? That's why you back things up.
Have you tried the two different approaches you asked about in point 1? Give them a shot, and let us know what happens.
Connection Refused errors are generally caused either by firewalls, or by problems in the web site's back end. Google Connection refused, and you'll find some good tips on troubleshooting them.
In your case, though, I'm wondering whether the issue is just a typo. There's no "u" in QIIME.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes!
Chris 