won't connect lately

I am running the upgraded version of Limewire. It seemed to be a big improvement at first--fewer freezes and crashes, faster downloads. But, in the last three or so days, I am having a real hard time connecting. The application starts and I get the searching screen but that little red "off" button stays off when I click it. I'll try maybe four times during a day and maybe on the fourth try I'll get connected to the network and stay connected for virtually as long as I want but I waste a whole lot of time, clicking that little button and staring in frustration at the blank search panel.

It looks to be like a whole bunch of new users have suddenly jumped on 'cause when I DO get connected there seem to be a whole bunch more MP3 files available. So could this just be a traffic problem, or is it my equipment, or both? I have a G-3, with a 56K modem, and about 32 K ram. Additionally I live in New YOrk City which supposedly has very "dirty" phone lines and my ISP is Compuserve. Any suggestions?