Problems Logging in and During the Loading Screen

I have been a League player for about 5 years now and for the last few months I have been having technical difficulties with the game like never before. The first problem arises when I attempt to log into the game. Generally, I am required to attempt to log in four, five, even up to seven or eight times before my log in information is accepted. The error message I receive so many times, day after day, is "CONNECTION ERROR Connection Failure: Unable to connect to the PVP.net server. Information what may have caused this error may be found here. Service availability can be viewed on the League of Legends Server Status Web Page."

So then after I finally get logged into the game, I find a 5v5 to enter and we all pick our champions. Then we get the Loading Screen, and this is where my second problem occurs. Sometimes (~1-8) the loading screen will freeze/stall. This is easily recognizable when a player(s) who have not reached 100% will stall at their respective loading %. However sometimes we will all reach 100% loaded and the game just never starts. I am then forced to alt+f4 and close the game, attempt to log back in, and then run into the first problem again as described in the first paragraph of this post.

Now by the time I finally get logged into the game and load the game I was not able to load during my first attempt, it could be five or six minutes into the current game and I am greeted by angry team mates who want me reported right off the bat. This makes for a very unpleasant gaming experience.

As I mentioned earlier, this has only been happening for the last month or two. I have not had this problem in the past, nor do I have a problem connecting to any other game I play. I am virus free, and I have a new computer running windows 8.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot these problems I am having? Thank you in advance.