consistent but slow
Well, here's a new wrinkle....
First off, I've got the 0.1.16 firmware, and I see nice consistent ping times, mostly 2-3 ms, with a few around 5. Nothing to really worry about. Signal strength seems to be OK, although I think it may drop and then reconnect occasionally. This is in a dual core mini, using an Airport Express.
The problem I'm having is transfer speeds. I've tested my transfer speed by serving a large file via web sharing, and downloading with Firefox on the other end. Going from an old TiBook with a G card to a Dell laptop, I get 1500-1700 KB/s. Not too bad. From the TiBook to the mini, it's 300-400 KB/s. Going back the other way, from the mini to either the TiBook or the Dell, the best I can get is 200-300 KB/s. These tests were done with the Dell sitting right next to the mini. I've tried doing the exact same transfer via a wired connection, and it's super fast in any direction. So it's not a general problem with the mini -- definitely Airport related.
I get the same behavior with the Airport Express set to either B/G mode or G only. I didn't try B only mode because I'm not interested in running at B speeds!
I find this interesting because if I only cared about my connection speed to the internet, and only tested it that way, I'd have nothing to complain about because the max d/l speed I'm getting on the mini is about the max I ever see come through my cable modem. I think my cable modem lets me upload at something less than 200 KB/s too. At these speeds, B is good enough for me. But I want G speeds for traffic within the LAN, and that's what I'm not getting. I think most people do not run this kind of test -- I am very curious about how many people have this problem and just don't know it (and/or don't care).
Anyway, I opened a case with AppleCare and am taking the mini over to my local Apple Store right now to see if they can determine what the problem might be. I'll follow up when I find out anything.
Matt