Toshiba A50 wireless and general questions

Hi
I'm new to all these notebook things, I've just bought one - Satellite A50 543. I've been a desktop user for a long time and now I find difficult to get used to the new stuff.
First off, is it usual that my notebook runs at 60 Hz screen refresh rate (and I can't set it any higher)? Will my eyes tackle it? (I noticed the LCD is much brighter than my old CRT monitor)
The screen is 15" TFT XGA and video is Intel Extreme Graphics 2.

Ok, that was the rookie thing

The second problem concerns my Intel Wireless Network card. It's called `Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG' and I can't set its connection speed higher that 36 Mbps. Usually it runs at 11 Mbps or even less (1 Mbps). Sometimes it goes 56 Mbps but not longer than for a few seconds.
How can I set it to constant 56 Mbps? I couldn't find anything in the intel software settings.
The computer I'm connected to is in the other room in my flat.

And the last one - how do I know if I can replace the Intel video card with any better one? Is it possible at all?

 

1. The limit to 60Hz is not really with the LCD, but it has more to do with XP & your video drivers. It seems that XP defaults the LCD monitors to 60Hz and left it upto the video card manufacturers to make drivers that bypassed this issue. Newer video cards/drivers may have this problem fixed (depends on the card type, don't think Intel has bypassed this issue). You can check Intel's site to see if there's new drivers that fix the problem. You're not gonna notice a difference because there is no flicker on an LCD screen.

2. The issue with the wireless connection probably has more to do with your environment then it does with the settings. It sounds like you're getting a lot of interference from other devices or maybe you signal is just weak (a lot of concrete/metal in your house). The weaker the signal, the more the system will drop/lower the connection speed. It may also be an issue with the wireless router that you're using. Try puting the router in a different location, make sure you don't have any other wireless cards connecting (a B card connected to your G network will drop the speed to B for everyone). Any speed settings can only be made on the router, try checking to see if tweaking the settings help.

-Vb-

 

thx for reply

I looked around and found out that 60 Hz is standard for my notebook (I should have done this earlier I guess...)

Saying `wireless router' do you mean access point? I've just got a wireless PCI card (Planet) in my desktop. I'm going to buy a router in a few days (I need independent Internet on both computers, I'm using Internet Connection Sharing now). Wonder if this improves the connection speed...

 

What I mean by Wireless Router is a device that will allow you to connect computers via wire and devices wirelessly. An Access Point is just a device that wireless devices connect to, but you need to attach the Access Point to an existing hub if you got one. I'm assuming you have Broadband (HighSpeed) internet, so getting a Wireless Broadband Router will do the job for you. Once connected and setup properly, everyone in your household can have an independent connection to the internet. The only thing is, your bandwidth (1MBit, 2Mbit or whatever it is) is shared between how many people you have downloading. So if 2 people are connected on your wireless router and downloading on the internet, and your bandwidth is 2Mbits/s (max), then that means you each have 1MBit/s download speed. So your speed gets divided by the number of people downloading.

-Vb-