Thank you @Sunshine 

I had tried reseating the Smarty sim in the rounter before but hadn't actually tried swapping it as I didn't have any data left on my phone sim. It renewed yesterday so I just tried it.

I noticed that before I did that while the Smarty sim was still in, the router reported that no sim was recognised. I swapped it for my Lebara (Vodafone) sim and it recognised it immediately. (Having said that, a restart of the router does allow the Smarty sim to be recognised again, albeit only for 10-20 mins.)

So, with the Lebara sim now working in the router, I can connect to the internet again with my Wndows laptop but I STILL can't get a wifi connection on my Samsung S20+ phone. (not trid any other devices yet)

That is the same problem I have been experiencing all along with the Smarty sim. The only difference being that the Smarty sim becomes 'unrecognisable' in the router. Only time will tell if the Lebara sim does the same thing.

I had read about Smarty purposefully dropping the connection due to incompatibility with several devices (mostly phones) that they would not be working on to allo a connection. It wasn't necessariy TP-Link routers.

Does that help at all?

I'm so confused!

Minskin

  @Sunshine 

Hi, thanks and apologies for the update.

I had already contacted Smarty before coming here, when these problems began and they are completely useless only repeating that it's "congestion" at the mast and that they can't give a date when it will be resolved. I'll be honest, I don't understand how my Windows laptop can connect consistently to the internet via the Smarty sim in the router and yet no other device can connect at all, some not even showing on the local network. Is it possible that the router is faulty, possibly damaged by the lightening and power outage? If so, is there a way to produce a n error log or to test it?

I say this as I also have another issue that I'd not got round to investigating beacuse of the connection issues. I have a Reolink CCTV camera connected to the network via a PoE switch. The camera appears to be functioning properly as it tracks and the floodlight comes on appropriately but I cannot get it to show on the network and therefore cannot control it via the app. I have tested it extensively; reformatting the on board memory card, swapping all cables including doing away with the PoE switch and plugging directly into the mains usng the original supplied cable but still it doesn't show.

I also have a NAS on the network and that shows up   just fine and I can control it via its app.

My Sony smart TV, 2 x Samsung phones and a Google Chrome do not show up either.

Do you have any suggestions where I should go from here?

Many thanks, Minskin

In addition to the above, I have some more odd symptoms.

My Reolink CCTV camera is attached by PoE LAN to the router. It shows up in the DHCP client list (when it's the only device connected via LAN) and appears to function correctly (the camera head tracks movement and the floodlight comes on appropriately) but it is not accessible via either the pc or mobile app. Very occasionally it does connect but it only lasts a minute or so then each subsequent attempt last less and less time until it doesn't connect at all.

I've noticed that the router appears to only allow 1 x LAN and 1 x WIFI connection at a time. It always defaults to my NAS connected via LAN and my laptop connected via WIFI, despite there being 2 x LAN devices attached and 3 WIFI devices attempting to connect at all times.

I'd really appreciate some help with this if there's anyone able to help? i work from home and it's really starting to cause me issues.

Many thanks, Minskin