I too run LimeWire on 8.6. First thing is to go to the Apple.com site and download the latest Apple MRJ (2.2.5) they have for the classic OS. To be on the safe side, also get CarbonLib 1.6. Install both. Reboot.

Then also to be on the safe side, hilight the LimeWire installer on the desktop and then do the Get Info (command + I) and the info window pops up. Click on the 'General Information' radio bar in the window and scroll down to 'memory'. Set the installer's memory to at least 1000 (it's default is 384? or something small like that). Install, and realize that you might have to set it up a few times before the thing takes.

Also, whatever you do, make sure that you set it up so the shared files folder is OUT OF THE PREFERENCES FOLDER! You do NOT need downloads going into your system folder (my shared folder is on my desktop, for quick reference - I don't have to go digging to find files). I don't know why on God's Green the LimeWire techs decided on that, but it's best to stay away from letting anything 'shared' into the folders that run your OS. Hello! Do not let the application scan your disc for any music files. Do it yourself, you know where your files are, and put the ones you want to share into the shared folder manually - no suprises that way about what you are sharing. Make it so the public folder you want to share from is anywhere but in the system folder. I had endless problems until I set it up that way.

Also, You will notice that the application will have a propensity to freeze up the system sometimes - don't panic or shut down. I've fingered out that what it is doing is trying to re-establish itself and get connections up and running again. It stops EVERYTHING, even the clock, which will jump in 30 second increments until it's connected again. If you set your connection speed too high (which I did), you'll get into alot of 'bottleneck' situations and it'll kick out and reconnect elsewhere, but it'll seem frozen or hung-up acting until it does.

Also, there's a sage bit of advice on another post from sberlin on the application running slowly..

There's a LimeWire.lax text file (to be on the safe side, make a duplicate [command+D] of this file so if something goes wrong, you're okay) in the LimeWire folder. You need to open it with SimpleText and then scroll down until you see the line that says..

lax.nl.macos.java.compiler=off

Change it to

#lax.nl.macos.java.compiler=off

Save the changes and start the application. This little change DOES make it run smoother, and the system hang-ups as I ket kicked out are alot quicker resolved.

Good luck.