I'm also experiencing big difficulties on my Mac running OSX 10.1.5 :-( My internet connection gets screwed up after starting LimeWire 3.8.5 Basic, and now I'm even having trouble connecting to IRC, using Ircle and Snak. I can connect to the IRCnetwork but can't join a channel, unless I quickly disconnect from the internet and reconnect.
I'd like to know what changes LimeWire made when I installed it, cos this is getting very annoying :-(