Ok the host has come back with they allow 10 connections at one time with no option to upgrade.
Going from that link it looks like you dont need alot of connection to run with out any problems as we are only a small forum.
Is there any way of looking at whats taking the connections from vbulletin?
** sort of found it my self
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...nnections.html
got to figure out how to use it ***