What's interesting to note, however, is that on the occasion, after I restart it (and this is very rare) it WON'T disconnect at all. VERY Rarely, it will stay connected to the internet until the next time I shut my computer down, in which it will resume it's random connect/disconnect phase.
The strangest thing about this problem, though, is that I find that the state of my computer directly effects other applications that don't even require internet connection. For example, during those incredibly rare times when it doesn't disconnect at all, games like The Sims or Portal will play smoothly on my laptop, without forcing it to shut down or crashing or causing blue screens of death. HOWEVER, When my laptop IS having issues connecting, playing those games wreak utter havoc on my computer, and I can't play them at all.