For the sake of further information: I'm using a dial-up connection, not cable or DSL, but I'm having exactly the same problem (except that I wait a good long time, like fifteen minutes, before I despair of ever making a connection).

In an attempt at diagnosing the problem, last night I downloaded and ran Mactella (which, let me tell you, is no substitute for Limewire -- or wouldn't be if one could connect with Limewire). But Mactella instantly made a huge number of rock-solid connections: they were there within minutes, and they stayed there over hours of off-and-on observation. And yes, it was possible to download from the hosts; they weren't phantoms.

I'm using OS 9.04 on a G3 Firewire; I've got NetBarrier installed but turning it off doesn't seem to affect the connection problem (and having it on never had any effect on previous versions of Limewire).

Like others here, I hope you all can get this fixed without our all having to wait for another major update. It's wonderful software, when it works.