I've had a WiFi "network" for quite some time that's consisted of an access point and my laptop. Everything's worked just fine with it. Recently, I got the Bluetooth/Airport upgrade for my Mac Mini. (Which, by the way, other than the problem I'm having, seems to be a pretty good deal; $99 installed, the same price as if you'd ordered the Mini with the option in the first place.

Ever since I got the Mini on the network, my laptop's connection has been flaky. Sometimes it works fine, but sometimes, usually under a network load, like transferring files multiple ways, the laptop will just kind of peter out and stop talking to any other computers; I can't even ping known IP addresses on the same network. When I look at the connection status, I see that it's got a good signal, usually 3-5 bars out of 5, but the speed is marked as being 1Mbps whereas it'll usually hover around 24Mbps in the areas I usually use it, or 54Mbps if I get close to the AP. But I'm not even getting 1Mbps out of it, apparently.

Nothing seems to solve the problem other than disconnecting from the wireless network and then reconnecting, at which point it'll start working as it always did before the Mini's wireless connection showed up. I always forget to check to see how the Mini's connection is during these outages, but it's always back up when I get the laptop back up.

The laptop is a Sony Vaio PCG-Z1WA with it's built-in Centrino 2200BG wireless adapter running Windows XP Home, which I think is getting to the point of needing to be reinstalled anyway. But, as I said, it was fine until the Mini. The Mini is, at least for the moment, physically much closer to the AP than the laptop usually is.

So, is the Mini crippling the network somehow, or is the laptop getting confused by something that the Mini is doing that it shouldn't be confused by, or is there something I can tweak maybe with the WiFi channel? Maybe a WiFi power level on the Mini? I don't really know where to start looking at this point.