I've not been ignoring you guys, and thank you for your input. Having tried every suggestion to the letter, it turned out the router was genuinely faulty.
Replaced with another Netgear (splashed out a bit for a Nighthawk AC1900, bit overrated for my needs, but is fibre ready should I ever decide to go down that route), which almost installed itself, to be fair the previous was also a Netgear so all the necessary software was already installed.
So am now "flying" along with ac protocol and 5mhz. Only my indoor webcam refused to connect to it as it demands the slower 2.3mhz. Could set it in dual mode, but as the camera is quite old have decided to replace it with one that will connect to the 5mhz.
Thanks again guys.
Experience; is something you gain, just after you needed it most.
When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you. But because in that brief moment while the coin is in the air. You suddenly know what you are hoping for.
