Abysmal Wifi Speeds

[CapnPancakeMix]

To begin, this is my first time building a network for a client from the ground-up. The only things that were provided were the Modem and a converter for the Fiber connection, both of which belong to the ISP. The client wanted a small router that could be hidden out of sight, so they decided on buying a Qotom-Q330G4 with 4-Ethernet Ports and a Wifi-Adapter. I installed Untangle on the box after convincing them that it was a perfectly good free option. This issue started after the initial setup; the Ethernet connections instantly reached their full speeds, which is 50Mbps, yet the WiFi connection took around fifteen minutes to initialize, giving an error message along the lines of "Couldn't obtain IP Address". I instantly assumed this was a DHCP issue, but while I was looking into this I got a connection on my phone, I made sure it worked and left.
The next day, I received a call saying that the WiFi speeds were nigh unusable, so I swung by and started to test the speeds at different locations in their house. The highest reading I got was .3 Mbps and that was standing less than a foot from the box, so I know that there is some sort of issue. I went through the house and removed anything that I thought might provide a source of interference, including an old WiFi Extender that was no longer in use, but still connected. Still, same readings.
The client told me he had a Wireless Access Point connected in an extension of the network, so I walked the 60-ish feet over to the garage, where everything was set up, and checked the readings. I was getting around 40Mbps from this Netgear WAP, which told me that either the box itself or the configuration of the Untangle Network was creating this poor distribution of WiFi data. As I was writing this, the WiFi completely ceased to work and the Command Center at the gateway became unreachable through the web client of the LAN devices connected via Ethernet. These devices still received Internet and the gateway was still responding to pings, so I have no idea why I couldn't reach the Untangle Command Center.

I've attached a quick Network diagram I made in Paint below.

TL;DR - LAN connection works fine and a Wireless Access Point on the far side of the network works fine, but the WiFi from the router itself is shoddy at best. As I was writing this, the WiFi completely stopped working again and the Command Center became unreachable, yet was still able to be pinged

Thanks, for the advice, in advance.

[Jim.Alles]

...to Untangle, and the forums!

you're not gonna like this:
https://forums.untangle.com/networking/43454-does-untangle-support-m-2-wifi-module-killer-wi-fi-6-ax1650-module.html#post244630
https://forums.untangle.com/networking/42578-compatible-wi-fi-usb-adapters-use-interface-ap-mode.html

[primerump]

yeh, that qotom wifi card is poor, i removed mine in favor of an access point.
if you need fast wifi then use a dedicated ap.

[TirsoJRP]

WiFi cards are not good access point, unless it was built for the purpose. Also, if you want dual band you need a card for 2.4ghz and another for 5ghz. Don't bother and use dedicated APs.

[jcoehoorn]

The antenna and radio designs for Access Points/routers/receivers are fundamentally different than what you want in an end-user device. The network card you stick in that Qualcomm box is never going to do well in an access point role.

If the wireless network card has external/removable antennas, you can sometimes address by getting special antenna kits and installing a driver designed from the get-go as an access point driver. This will often a include a kernel module (it needs to do some scheduling for channel scans/surveys) and a firmware push into the chip itself. But this support is not common.