@half_blind 

Thanks for your reply; yes I do mean I have no internet connection through the opera web browser, although interestingly, the little blue box shows that it has vpn, but still cannot access any website;  I thought that when I posted I was forced to enter firmare version etc which was showing as part of the post; I do not have the tplink eouter up and running at the momebt due to it not functioning, but the firmare that I noted on a piece of paper is 38000 with the hardware being td-w9960, thats all I a supply right now:)

All the best

half_blind

  @half_blind 

Have fixed the problem; tuns out that the networkmanager was the culprit, changed to wicd; was not eh iptables firewall, or opera's fault.