iPhone 4S Connection Problem when Plugged in to Mac Mini??

Hi there,

I have owned many apple products and am very computer savvy but I cannot figure this one out. When I plug my iphone 4s in to the wall (with the same charger) it connects fine on the first try and charges no problem. When i go to plug it in to my mini (which was fine up until a few weeks ago) it keeps beeping over and over like it is trying to establish a connection.

Itunes as a result has an error saying that it did not get a valid response from the iphone (obviously since it is connecting and disconnecting). I have tried all USB ports (which are functioning otherwise) and have tried two different chargers.

I am running 5.0.1 ... I am trying to update 5.1 but obviously that is not happening - since I cannot update wirelessly either (server keeps timing out it looks like).

Anyways, the phone functions fine otherwise i can do everything else but this is just weird.

For what it's worth I am running 10.6.3 on my OS and did not do any updates since it last worked fine.

Any suggestions???

Thanks in advance!