Right now this minute I'm on LimeWire and I have 700 host connections - I am using 1.7 version so I have this.
Do you know how I did this..When I first came on I couldn't get any connections.. so I went to the "Communities" tab - you know the one that lots of people say doesn't work. Connected to Australia - failed first time - hit it again and off it went, took about 5 minutes to get to 700.
Try it - it works for me 'nearly' every time.