Ok.... So... It's working now.
Not sure why, what changes actually helped.... Or if it was just waiting that fixed it. I would say about 3 hours after I registered the Mac to a donation I finally have a working portal. I did do it almost immediately after it went out though. Tomorrow I'll mess with it again and see what breaks it so I know if there is a good reason, or if it was waiting it out.
What I did do if your looking to try something that might help...lol:
I added both the Ethernet Mac and the wifi Mac to two separate donation numbers. I then changed from 11.iptvrocket.tv to the 11.iptvprivateserver.tv address. I then just pulled the plug out about 5-6 times followed by finally forcing a reload of the portal from the settings menu. Boom... The yellow bar started to grow!
Tomorrow, I'll start with removing the wifi Mac from a donation and see if it goes off. If not, I'll remove the Ethernet Mac and make sure it actually does go off.
BTW - Kodi seems to be working without interruption and I did NOT register a MAC for it. It's hitting portal.iptvprivateserver.tv, so I'm thinking free is still on and not fully private yet.