If you have a decent line then just use the Basic version,stay connected and let yourself connect as an UltraPeer (UP), which will give you much better search results.

Even if you are not automatically chosen to be one, if your average connect time to the network is high enough, then you can just force it yourself by deleting the UPs you are connected to until you start getting many more connections (max is 32UPs and 32 leaves).

Also newer Limewire versions are to my knowledge not bug free, so you might want to use an older version. Just uninstall using the uninstall.exe in your Limewire program folder.

I had very good results using v4.12.06 but that might not be the case for you. It seems it depends a bit on computer setup.

Anyways, You can find older versions here: Download LimeWire Basic 4.12.6 - filehippo.com

Note: Limewire didn't have BitTorrent support until v. 4.13 but since their BitTorrent support sucks anyway, just use a proper program for that e.g. Azureus or uTorrent.