I'm on a satellite internet connection (slow) and the client times out before it can connect. Is there a way to increase the amount of time it waits before giving up?

Not currently, no - I'm afraid not.
One of a long line of little features to add!

There's nothing official, but there's a patched client that I downloaded that changes the wait time to 6 seconds instead of 2.5.
One of the guys from SuperCool Build made it because the maps file is too large to connect to for slower computers.

Here's the conversation where he gives it to me & the download link (Just so you have more clarification etc.)
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=177619422303199&id=175261119205696