I have disconnected Limewire and waited 5-minutes and connected Limewire back and it is still trying to connect to the network. It feels like it takes 10-years before I can get connected to search any thing.

I don't have any older versions of LimeWire. I have upgraded from MusicETC v5.8 to Limewire 4-months ago and everything has been fine with no problems until the past couple of weeks.

How do I go about deleting the Limewire preferences folder?

And to answer your question about was Limewire connecting with that Java version before? The answer is "yes" everything has been working fine with no problems connecting until recently. It use to just connect on a dime with no problems.