Wireless EDU Woes

I just bought a T60 Widescreen, and am having issues with it in terms of speed. My friend has an older Gateway tablet PC that utilizes the Intel 2200ABG chipset, and on the EDU wireless that we have here (is on A/B/G, but we both run on the A because of less interference and traffic) he gets about 20mbit down, 5 mbit up. I, however, get about 6 mbit down, 3 mbit up. The T60 I am using uses the Atheros AR5001X+ chipset, if that makes any differences. I have been tinkering with my laptop all day and actually *did* manage to get it to go up to 10mbit down / 3 mbit up, but after I had to restore my computer due to some other issue and am unable to reproduce those same results. Both of our laptops were on the same Access Point on the same protocol (A) for the same testing site (Speedtest.net, San Jose site).

Solutions Already tried:
-Turn off power savings mode for maximum performance
-Turn off Windows Firewall
-Uninstall access connection (Lenovo connection software)/ restart / uninstall wireless driver / restart / install wireless driver / restart / speed test / install access connection / restart / speed test -> produced no increase / effect
-Updating software/drivers using Software Update 3 to the latest - no effect
-Downloading Atheros universal driver 7.2.0.125 from softpedia - no effect.

I have seen that a majority of people much prefer Atheros over Intel. Did I do something wrong? can anyone tell me what it is that i can do to get the same wireless speeds as my friend with his 2 year old laptop?

 

what do you get on g is it faster if so use it
jim

 

A is the same speed. It's on the 5 Ghz frequency, which people rarely use. Therefore less interface. As a result A > G

 

what does it connect on a public link somewhere like a cpffee shop?
jim

 

No, I am on a university campus. It connects to one of the access points that provides wireless coverage over the campus.