Cheers for the help guys, I took abit of time this evening to try and get it sorted, which I have
.
So first thing I did was reboot the "gateway" the other 2 routers were displaying as attached devices but nt their names. I spent quite a bit of time going through the gateway router settings and making sure nothing was wrong. After connecting my mates laptop to it and turning the DHCP settings on and off we noticed that it allowed his laptop to connect wirelessly for the first time = progress.
The next step was to go to the 2 outer routers. we struggled for a while checking the settings and found that I could connect to the internet through cable but the wireless would not work. Deep breath and a quick press of the reset to factory default and allowed teh setup wizard to detect the internet connection, then configured the wireless access point and it all started working.
Done the same with the other side and we now have a fully working setup, thank goodness!
It is only now that I realise how much I rely on having access to the internet, whether it be for my hobby or out of neccesity. The same goes for mobile phones- 10 years ago I would not have thought nothing about not having one, let alone having it with me, now its one of the things i check for before I go anywhere.
Anyway, thanks for all the help guys I am happy I got it sorted fairly quickly after my initial post otherwise I may have been pestering you for ages.