As far as the first two issues go, I first recommend completely uninstalling your current versions of LimeWire (you will find the uninstaller in the "Uninstaller Data" directory in the directory where you installed LimeWire).

After you run the uninstaller, you should manually delete any files and folders in the LimeWire installatio directory accept for any files you have downloaded that you would like to keep. Once you have done this, try running the latest installer again (the one put up on our web site yesterday), and then launching LimeWire.

As far as the connection problems go, I would also recommend closing LimeWire and starting it again to see if you can connect that way.