I'm excited to be able to use Migne from my computer, but emule says "connection appears to be dead" when I try to connect to the server. Anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Try changing ports (In eMule Options -> Connection -> Client Port)
You can use each port between 1 and 65535. If there are problems, you can always change the numbers (just close-restart emule). Usually it would be safer to select ports above 1024.

Perhaps your firewall is blocking it. Add eMule to the exceptions of your firewall. In the case of protocol blocking/throttling, try using Obfuscated connection.