Well if you need the wireless stuff then you need to leave it on there. Though don't know that it needs to run all the time however. Not sure if it can be started manually or not.
When you say this slowness started when you were home...it wasn't slow at school, you went home, it got slow and continued when you went back to school?
Were videos slow also before this? Did you add or change ANYTHING when you were home?

$16 is a great deal. Didn't know if they would let you do this or not. Yes, drivers can be downloaded easily.