Writing to my MP about Brexit - Response to Letter #2

This is the response as received

Dear Keith,

Thank you for your reply.

I am opposed to a second referendum as it is a clearly a vehicle to stop Brexit that is being pushed by staunch remain politicians. The leading people behind the People’s Vote campaign and those in Parliament who have tried to legislate for one are all pro-Remain people who are trying to find a way of reversing the result of 2016. I am happy for people to advocate being in the EU, but we should at least deliver the result of the first referendum before we start looking at other votes.

I also appreciate that no-deal is not perfect. It would bring short term disruption, however, many of the myths peddled by Project Fear have unravelled as both the UK and the EU carry out their no-deal planning. Just last month we saw the Department for Transport announcing that flights to and from the EU will carry on as normal, even though Remain politicians and commentators have said that flight would be grounded. EU ports are also ready for a no-deal scenario. I also support a no-deal outcome in the absence of a deal because we are able to implement a no-deal transition under WTO rules, whereby tariffs remain at zero whilst a free trade agreement is implemented.

I hope this is helpful.

Kind regards,

Suella Braverman MP

Member of Parliament for Fareham

Writing to my MP about Brexit - Letter #2

Background

This part of an on-going blog theme my attempts to influence my local MP: Suella Braverman on the subject of the UK leaving the EU.

Suella's response to my Letter #1

Dear Keith

Thank you for your recent email about Brexit. Due to the hundreds of emails that I continue to receive on this and many other matters, I am unable to respond to individual emails, but I hope that my response will address any queries, concerns or observations that you have raised.

Over the last two months, I have held two public meetings on Brexit which were attended by over 300 people and I have received thousands of emails and letters from local residents, all of which have been very helpful in forming my views.

It is clear that we are in a constitutional crisis and the political implications are serious. Things are unpredictable and I know that many people are worried and frustrated by recent events. The fact that we did not leave the EU on the 29th March as promised is particularly disappointing for me and millions of voters. I therefore voted against the extension of Article 50, but it was nevertheless passed by a majority of MPs.

Last Friday, the Prime Minister brought back the Withdrawal Agreement for a third vote, although this time it did not include the Political Declaration on the Future Relationship. Once again I voted against it as I did on the previous two occasions for the following reasons:

1. The Withdrawal Agreement is not Brexit. It could trap the UK into a Customs Union indefinitely as confirmed by the Attorney General’s legal advice. The UK would also have to follow many Single Market rules indefinitely and the European Court of Justice would continue to have the last word on legal matters, with the UK still subject to EU treaties and rules with no say over them at all. We would also have to pay £39bn for no guarantee of a Free Trade Agreement in return. A customs and regulatory border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain would be created by the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, otherwise known as the Backstop.
2. Nothing has changed to the Withdrawal Agreement since November: I resigned my Ministerial job because of the unacceptable terms of the deal. Nothing has changed to the deal since then.
3. The DUP did not support the deal: Our partners in government, to whom we owe our majority and ability to govern, were rightly concerned that the terms of the Backstop would ultimately lead to a break up of the UK.

For a third time, the deal failed to command a majority in Parliament.

In addition to the third vote, a group of backbenchers - with the help of the Speaker - passed a motion to take control of the Order Paper and the Parliamentary timetable, enabling them to set the agenda of motions and votes in the House of Commons. This is unprecedented and highly damaging to our constitutional order. When the motion for this was tabled, I voted against, but it was nonetheless passed. As a result, we carried out a series of ‘indicative votes’ on Thursday and Monday. These were non-binding votes on alternative Brexit options. The way I voted was as follows:

1. AGAINST a Customs Union
2. AGAINST a Second Referendum / People's Vote
3. AGAINST a ‘Norway option’ (Membership of the Single Market which would include the free movement of people)
4. AGAINST an Extension to Article 50
5. FOR ‘No-Deal’
6. FOR the ‘Malthouse Compromise’ (a managed ‘No Deal’)

None of these options commanded a majority of in the House of Commons, although it is worth noting that the only thing that has commanded a majority so far was the Brady Amendment which accepted the deal on the condition that the Government replaced the Northern Ireland Backstop with alternative arrangements. These arrangements could include a trade agreement as set out in the Malthouse Compromise.

What will happen next?
It is impossible to predict the outcome with any certainty. However, it looks possible that there might be a fourth vote on the deal later this week. As it is highly likely that nothing will have changed to the deal, I am still minded to vote against it. The solution to this impasse is for the Prime Minister to lead the government and country to a managed no-deal Brexit on the 12th April. No-deal preparations are highly advanced on the UK side and are finalised on the EU’s part. Doing this also enables us to deliver Brexit now and honour the result of the EU Referendum.

However, whether this happens is very much the choice of the Prime Minister and not something which I have no control. If Theresa May does not choose to do that, then she can seek a longer extension to Article 50 (duration and terms unknown). Whilst she will seek a vote from the Commons for it (and I will always vote against any extension), there is a possibility that it may command a majority. All of these options depend on the EU agreeing to them. There is an emergency EU Summit on the 10th April when their position will become clear.

As someone who made promises to the public during the referendum in 2016 about what Brexit meant, i.e. leaving the Customs Union and Single Market and ECJ jurisdiction, the free movement of poeple and EU rules, I am unable to support a deal that does not even come close to these promises. I was also re-elected in 2017 on identical manifesto pledges, including that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’. Therefore, it is very difficult to see how I can break those promises and vote for the deal if it remains unchanged. I am also mindful of the DUP's position which is important to the stability of government. I am aware of the other possibilities - but a long extension and a refusal to lead us out on a no-deal basis will be out of my hands and ultimately the choice of the Prime Minister. I have indeed met with the Prime Minister and made my views on the deal very clear.

I hope this clarifies my position, and if you would like to stay up to date with my news and events, please sign up to my newsletter below.

Kind regards,

Suella Braverman MP

Member of Parliament for Fareham

Letter #2

Mrs Braverman

Regrettably, your response fails to address my concerns or provide significant information beyond your website, which I took the time to read before writing to you the first time. I understand and largely agree with your reservations about any deal or compromise that leaves the UK bound to the EU without influence over the direction of the EU. In particular, there are two elements of your position that I can not see the justification for, in the interest to keeping the time taken to respond to me minimal can you please answer the following two questions:

1. Given the wide scope of options for leaving the EU and the simplistic nature of the 1st referendum, a confirmatory referendum seems only reasonable given the significant impact that any option could potentially have on the UK. Why do you vote against a 2nd referendum?
2.  Please explain why you believe leaving the EU without a deal can be justified. I would like to understand the evidence for the potential gains and why that is acceptable compared to the risks.

Keith

Writing to my MP about Brexit - Letter #1

Background

I was part of the 48.1% of people who voted for the UK to stay part of the EU in 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. I am not a devoted europhile but I came to the conclusion at the time that the risks to the economy could not be justified, life outside the EU might be better but it could also be worse. A much wiser friend summarised it best by saying that we as a nation are much better influencing from within rather than walking away.

Since then I have got very frustrated by the direction the post-referendum political landscape has taken, in particular:

• Being told the narrow margin of victory is the "will of the people"
• Being called a "Remoaner" for expressing any doubts that leaving the EU may not represent what was promised by the campaign to leave.

A college suggested that rather than moan about this I should take part in the on-going democratic process, including writing to my MP.

My local MP is a Suella Braverman a firm supporter for the UK leaving the UK. On the 29th of March 2019 (the date once scheduled for the UK to depart) she posted the following on FaceBook:

The Letter

I could ignore it no more and I wrote letter number one:

Mrs Braverman

I should be clear from the outset of this email that I voted in the last referendum for the UK to remain the EU, I continue to hold this position and I acknowledge that your views on this issue are unambiguous. Up until this point, I have not taken the time to write to you, as I normally follow the principle of only investing time where there is a prospect of it being useful. However, I am deeply concerned by the comments you made in a Facebook post yesterday Friday 29th March that UK should leave without a deal. I want to ensure my dissenting voice from your constituency is noted even if it does not change your mind.

I accept that the first referendum provided majority support for the principle of leaving the EU, I do not believe it was a mandate to leave under any circumstances. I do not believe the risk to the future of our country and especially our economy from a so-called "Hard Brexit" should be trivialised. I do agree with you that a deal which ties the UK to the EU with no influence over the rules and direction is a bad deal, therefore I agree with the statement: "No deal is better than a bad deal". However, there are alternatives including maintaining our current arrangements.

I believe the current deadlock in parliament can only be resolved with a second referendum that offers the whole electorate the deeply important choice our country currently faces. If the reasons and arguments for any path are right, then we should trust the people of this country to make the decision. 

Ultimate Job Titles

In my idle hours I often dream of a job that requires little effort, large rewards and the admiration of all. Ideally, this job should involve working from home, preferably with an outside pool in a clement climate, where I can dispatch wisdom via teleconference to my colleagues whilst enjoying the warm sunshine.

As an engineer, I have had a variety of job titles in my career which have been often of the form <grade> <discipline> Engineer such as Junior Hardware Engineer or Senior Systems Engineer. These jobs have not been low effort and I would not wish to be seen to be moaning as they were hardly boring or poorly paid. However no job to date has satisfied the  "Large Reward" criteria. I have concluded that I need a better job title to help the situation, this conclusion was somewhat inspired by learning that many marketing professionals had started to use the title: chief storyteller.

Getting the word Technologist into your job title seemed like it might be a step forward as these people often gain increased latitude to develop interesting ideas and I am guessing the remuneration was adequate. However, I came to the conclusion that this was not sufficiently ambiguous. The world of technology is not afraid of unusual job titles, I have actually met someone whose business card described them as an evangelist and the following article provides some quite believable examples: The Biggest Bullshit Job Titles in Tech. An associate of mine has already reserved the title Guru of Tremendousness, although he is yet to discuss that aspiration with his manager, I think he might be going along the right lines. Famously Chade-Meng Tan, Google employee number 107, had the job title: Jolly Good Fellow, however as a humble Englishman I would find that uncomfortable. Meng was going along the right lines though in my opinion, ensuring the title gave no clue as to what it was he did.

Over a lunch break I have discussed the options with my colleagues (most of whom are clearly just humouring me), incorporating the word Visionary into the title seemed to show promise but I concluded it was problematic for the same reason that variants on engineer or storyteller were flawed, mainly because it is implied what I might do: provide a vision. It should be noted that if your main output is a vision is that you can always blame other people for failing to interpret it correctly if anything fails, this is never the less risky. 

Today I have reached a conclusion, I want the title: Technical Philosopher. I need to separate myself from the academic type of philosopher (because that is not well paid) by including the word Technical. This title has the credibility of sounding like a solid academic subject, whilst having no implication of achieving anything, all I would need to do is think but delivering useful thoughts would be a bonus. Unfortunately my current employer does not encourage imagination in job titles but I can carry on dreaming in idle hours.

Disclaimer: These are my idle musing, in the same group as what I would spend my money on if I won the lottery, they are no indicative of dissatisfaction with my job or employer.










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Chirstmas Pudding

My mum always made her own Christmas puddings as did the generations before. Once I moved into my own house, I have preserved the tradition. There is some debate about which branch of my mum's family provided the recipe, it is possibly an amalgamation with her own enhancements.  All I know is some years ago I photographed the handwritten page of her recipe book and that is the basis of mine. 

Mum's Handwritten Recipe

Ingredients

• ½lb (225g) Plain Flour
• ½lb (225g) Breadcrumbs
• ½lb (225g) Suet
• ½lb (225g) Dark Brown Sugar
• ½lb (225g) Raisins
• ½lb (225g) Sultarners 
• ½lb (225g) Currants
• 1 Grated Carrot
• 1 Grated raw apple
• ½teaspoon (3ml) Salt 
• ½teaspoon (3ml) Cinnamon 
• ½teaspoon (3ml) Mixed Spice
• ½teaspoon (3ml) Ground Nutmeg
• 2oz (57g) Chopped Almonds
• 2oz (57g) Chopped candied peel
• Rind and Juice of a Orange
• Rind and Juice of a Lemon
• 3 Eggs
• 1 Wine Glass (125ml) Brandy

Note about some of the Ingredients

You can buy all this in a well stocked supermarket visiting the bakery aisle or using your prefered home deliver provider. In the UK it may be cheaper to buy the dried fruit in a specialist shop and if you are making christmas cake too you'll need a lot so this can be worthwhile.

For the squeamish, don't look up what Suet is, just buy it the box won't say on the outside. Here in the UK one of the leading brands in Atora. Your pudding will taste nice but will not be vegetarian. They do also see a vegetable based version though I have never tried it.

Method

Preparation

You will probably need to turn some bread (good way of using stale bread) into breadcrumbs. I always do this in the food processor.

  

The carrot and apple will need to be gratted, you can do this in the food processor with a gratting attachment or by hand. Also break and then beat the 3 eggs.

Once the preparation is done you can mix all the dry ingredients together, the the fruit and finally the liquid. Make sure you do this in a large mixing bowl the quantity of mixture is always more than I expect it to be, you will have 2L of mix and you need plenty of room to mix it around.

Dry ingredients in the bowl

The family recipe says that the mixture should be left overnight, I have not always done this and it seems to make no difference. However, there may be a practical reason, the steaming process takes me about 14 hours, therefore if you prepare it the day before you can get up and start it at 7AM and it will be done by a sensible time.

Bowling and Sealing

The original recipe describes (1 large and 2 small) puddings, however, you could also make 2 large puddings. I have always done them in Pyrex Classic Bowls. I have discovered that the large pudding fits in their 1L 16cm bowl and the small pudding fitts in the ½L 14cm Bowl. These bowls are relatively cheap and hardwearing, this is important for the storage. The clear nature of the glass also allows you to see the contents without being tempted to break the seals.

Loaded into the bowls

Divide the mixture between the bowls and the you need to seal them. I always use a double layer of greaseproof paper followed by a layer of tin foil. Each is tied with string, tight to produce a durable airtight seal. Sealing them is a two person job unless you are highly practiced. Make sure you put a pleat into each layer to allow for some expansion.  There is a nice YouTube video showing this technique: How to prepare a pudding for steaming (She uses buttered parchment paper rather than greaseproof but the method is basically the same). I do recommend ensuring you have some type of handle in the arrangement in order to lift the pudding easily when they are hot and wet. Also make sure you use good quality string, I have had problems in the past with the string disintegrating in the cooking process.

Grease proof paper applied and secured with string, note the pleat for expansion

Foil applied over the paper and secured with string, note the pleat for expansion

In some recipes you will see extensive greasing of the bowl being recommended, I have never done this. The pudding shrinks back in the cooking process and has always dropped out when the bowl is upended on a plate, however, it probably won't hurt. 

Steaming

The pudding is initially steamed when it is made and then re-steamed prior to eating. The recipe states:

• 10 hours steaming for the large (1L) pudding
• 7 Hours steaming for the small (½L) pudding

I have always done this in a multi-tiered hob top steamer, just make sure you keep an eye on it to ensure that is doesn't boil dry.

Multi-tiered hib top steamer

For some reason most commercially available steamers have two baskets, therefore you need to do the small puddings in two goes, hence the 14 hour cook time.

Storing

Once steamed, the pudding can be kept in the cupboard to mature. In this time they will actually improve. In our family it is said that they reach optimal taste after three years. However, they have been safely eaten after seven years when one got lost in a move. The key rule is: DO NOT BREAK THE SEAL, they will quickly go mouldy. If the seal does get inadvertently damaged, for example the foil in punctured by accident, I have resealed and then steamed them to sterilize the pudding with success.

Christmas Day

On christmas morning put the steamer on again so that the pudding will be ready at the right time:

• 4 hours steaming for the large (1L) pudding - 12 servings
• 3 Hours steaming for the small (½L) pudding - 8 servings

It will have changed from the golden brown of the original to dark brown (nearly black depending on the age) and will delious, with Brandy Butter of course.

Ready for eating, with Brandy Butter on the side

The secret of Synology and Chromecast with an Apple iPad

Disclaimer first, it is not really a secret but it is a bit of function that is not well advertised or documented. However, I took some license with the title because it sounds more interesting.

The humble Chromecast is a inexpensive little dongle that plugs into the HDMI socket of a TV to turn a cheap/older TV into a modern smart TV.

Chromecast

I bought a Chromecast rather than upgrade my TV in order stream content to my TV, or have the continued hastel of having to plug a laptop/tablet into my TV. Having watched BTSport, YouTube, pondered whether I to join Netflix on my new Chromecast; I wondered whether I can stream content from my home server - A Synology DS110J.

Synology DS110J

 If I had stayed loyal to my Android tablet, no problem streaming to a Chromecast there are several apps. However, I recently defected to "The shiny fruit" and own an iPad Air. 

After much hunting I discovered that Synology's own media playing application: DSVideo, supports Chromecast in the latest DSM5.0 in the following blog: Media Streaming with Chromecast. So I upgraded to DSM5.0, Fired up DSVideo on my iPad and then hunted for the Chromecast button.

Chromecast Button as found in most applications e.g. YouTube

What the help files don't explain very well is that you ignore the Chromecast option in the main menu and look for the a different logo in the top right corner. 

The option to stream a video to your Chromecast

Concluesion

A brilliant marriage of my Synology NAS and Chromecast, just wish they would make the DSVideo application a bit more user friendly.

Recycling a BT home hub as a Wireless Access Point (AP)

Many people in the UK are BT customers who have had their router upgraded at some point so now have a spare. If you are one of those people who also suffers from poor WIFI signal somewhere in your house follow these step by step instructions to reuse your old router and solve your WIFI problems.

My instructions involve using my old home hub 2 along with my newer Home Hub 3. 
The old Home Hub 2 will become a Wireless AccessPoint (AP) and the Home Hub 3 will stay as a router (connecting my home network to the internet). However, I will also explain the principles so that you can extend it to other routers

BT Home Hub 3 (Left) and BT Home Hub 2 (Right)

Instructions

Connect Your Old Router

In order to communicate network traffic between the router (that connects to the outside Internet) and your new AP you need to connect them together. There are two main ways of doing this:

1. A network cable
2. Using a Ethernet over Power (often known as power line)

If you plug in you old router without setting it up first it will conflict with your the new router and you may have difficulties. Until you have done the full setup procedure do not have them both switched on together.

The Cable Option

For the option you just need a CAT5 ethernet cable. Higher performance cables (CAT5e or CAT6) is only required for speeds above 100Mb/s. Most people have an incoming broadband speed of less than 100Mb/s so a faster internal network is only likely to be needed for advanced users. If you plan to do lots of home cabling investing in a tool to make your own cables might be worthwhile but 20M CAT5 cables can cost less than <£10.

Cabling two Home Hubs together

If you have wooden floorboards to route them underneath or run it through the loft space. Alternatively you can tuck it under the carpets.

 Ethernet over Power

The technology for transmitting network traffic over you internal electricity cabling is amazing. I got a set of PowerLine adaptor with my first BTVision box. I then bought a further one on eBay to extend my network for £15. Failing that, they are available on many internet retailers. If you already have some supplied with the 1st generation BTVision box look for people selling Comtrend Powerline 9020 on ebay to expand your system.

Connecting your two Home Hubs with Ethernet over Power

Because I already had two, I just needed one more but then needed to go through the pairing process. These devices use encryption to ensure that they only talk to each other and no-one unauthorised can get at your network traffic. If you already have some you will need to follow the procedure listed in the user manual.

Setup Your Old Router

In order to make these changes you will need to log into your router. Until you have set up the old router as your AP, DO NOT HAVE THEM SWITCHED ON SIMULTANEOUSLY. 

If you don't know all the settings you may need to:

1. study the settings in your router, write them down;
2. turn off the new router;
3. turn on the old router enter the settings;
4. then turn back on the new router

If you have never looked at the settings in your router(s) get comfortable navigating them and making sure you understand the settings before you start making changes. Your router has a simple webserver built into it that allows you to view and change its configuration. To get to this you simply point your webbrowser at the address of the router whilst your device, e.g. a PC, is connected to the internal network. In my case both of my routers live at the address 192.168.1.254, According to an article on the BT website, all BT home Hubs have this address by default. Because they both have the same address do not have them switched on at the same time until you have reconfigured the AP to a different address.

Using Internet Explorer to log into the router

In order to change your old router into a Wireless AccessPoint (AP). You need to change two settings:

• The Wireless settings - You need to make settings on the Router and the AP identical so that you can use either without needing to worry about having to manually change your computer/phone/tablet settings all the time.
• Update the Address allocation to ensure that the two devices don't fight each other.

Wireless Settings

HINT: This process is easier if you are connected to the router using a cable from a PC rather than using WIFI. That way if you make a mistake you'll be able to get back in again easily. You can connect a cable directly to the router from a PC in most cases.

Each WIFI network has the following:

• a name, called Service Set Identifier (SSID). 
• a security key used to encrypt your data and minimise the chance of an unauthorised person using your network or stealing your data. 

You need to set these settings to the same on both the router and AP to ensure seamless WIFI in your house.

The following steps depends upon whether you use the defaults or if you have changed it. For example you can change the SSID to "Keith House" to make it easier to connecting your devices to the network and set the password to something more memorable. If you haven't changed it the defaults, the SSID, Wireless password and access password to you Home Hub are on a handy tab in the top of BT Home Hub 3 or supplied on a credit card bit of plastic for the Home Hub 2.

Handy tab on the Home Hub 3

To make this process easier I strongly recommend changing the SSID and the security password to something memorable. Once you have found the web login for your router, then press the settings button and proceed to the advanced settings, at one point in this process you will need to enter the administration password for the router. It may also ask you if you are really sure whether to go to the advanced settings, say yes, however, take some time looking before you make any changes.

If you find that the type of wireless encryption is set to WEP or "No Encryption", I strongly recommend changing that immediately to WPA or WPA2. Hackers worked out how to bypass WEP encryption a number of years ago and this is next to useless now.

Get the router set up first then you can mirror the settings on the AP. If you are logged into your router using Wireless and you change either setting you will need to reconnect to it using the new settings. 

The Home Hub 2 and Home Hub 3 have the settings in slightly different places. But you are looking for two settings:

• SSID - Also called the "Wireless Network" or "Wireless Network Name"
• Wireless security Key - This is called "Wireless Key" or "Wireless Encryption Key" depending on the level of software. 

Depending on the version of software on your Home Hub it may look different. On mine it was under Settings-Advanced Settings->Wireless. The Home Hub 2 which I converted to an AP looked a bit different as shown below:

What the settings page looks like on the Home Hub 3

The configuration page on my home hub 2 where you set the SSID

The wireless security page on my home hub 2 where you set the wireless security key

DHCP

In order for two computers to "talk" to each other, they mainly use a protocol (bit like a language) called Internet Protocol (IP). One key aspect of this protocol is the IP address, normally represented as a set of 4 numbers separated by dots e.g. 192.168.1.254. In the internet at large these need to be unique, however, your home router does a conversion so that the addresses within you private home network don't need to be unique in the whole world. These non-unique addresses are only permitted in special ranges of addresses, one of the popular ranges is 192.168.???.???. Each device in your home, like your PC or smart phone, needs to have an address and needs to know the address of the "Gateway". The gateway is a special address to which all request outside the local network are sent to, in this case the router is the gateway. There are two ways that each of your computing devices get an address:

1. You manually set the address of each device in your home, this is called a static address. This is not recommended unless you really know why you want to do it. I will explain one special case later on.
2. You let the network automatically assign addresses, this is called Dynamic Addressing. The dynamic addresses are managed by something called a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. 

The good news is that your router has a DHCP server built into it. However, the bad news is that your old router that you plan to use as a AP also has a DHCP server. The AP isn't connected to the internet but it will pretend it is causing other devices to be unable to connect to the internet any more, so you need to turn it off otherwise it will fight the router. Do not change the DCHP settings on the Router only change the AP. 

My BT router reserves a range of address for static allocation and a range for dynamic allocation. It is useful to allocate your AP a static address so that you can log in to easily in the future. So the first step is to check these details on you router, on my Home Hub 3 they were under Settings->Advanced Settings->Home Network->IP Addresses. As you can see it only dynamically allocates in the range 192.168.1.64 to 192.168.1.253 this means any address in the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.63 is free for static allocation (assuming the subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0). If your settings are different then you need to do some research to work out the available static ranges, I am afraid it is too much to explain here. This also assumes you have not already been allocating static address to your devices. If you have already been doing static allocation I assume you know what you're doing already.

DHCP settings on the Home Hub 3 - Look but don't touch

  

You don't need to change any of the settings in the router, what you need to do is go to the AP and change its settings. The settings were in the same place on my Home Hub 2 but the page looked a bit different. what you need to do is:

• Turn off the DHCP server - set enabled to "No"
• Assign it a Static IP address in the range permitted. In this example I have selected 192.168.1.5. This step is theoretically optional, you could let your router dynamically assign an address but it makes it easier if you assign a static address so that you can find your AP on the network in the future.

Setting the DHCP setting on the Home Hub 2 that will be the AP

Once you change the IP address on the AP you need to go to the new address to log into it in the future.

Summary

So in summary:

• Connect up your old router (which will be the AP) where the WIFI is poor using a cable or Powerline adapter - DO NOT SWITCH IT ONE YET
• Log into your router and then do the following
• note down or change the following WIFI settings
• SSID
• Wireless security key
• note down the range of static addresses available for allocation
• Switch off the router
• Switch on the AP
• Log in to the AP and do the following:
• Set the SSID and Wireless Security key to the same as the router
• Turn off DHCP
• Set the Static IP address
• Switch on the router and enjoy enhanced WIFI coverage

HINT: if you have never done this type of thing before log into both routers first LOOK AT THE SETTINGS FIRST, then once you are happy you have found what you need then start making changes.

HINT Number 2 : If all else fails reset everything back to factory defaults. The Home hub have a reset to factory defaults process which will reset it to how it came out of the box. It might be a good idea to find the instructions for doing this and print them out before you break anything by accident (stopping your internet access).

Technical experts will note that I have made a number of simplifications in my explanations, please be gentle if you disagree. If this was useful to you please make a comment. if you want to suggest an improvement please comment. 

DISCLAIMER

I have provided these instructions on a free basis in good faith, I have made best efforts to get them right and explain the steps. However, I make no guarantees, IF YOU MESS UP YOUR HOME NETWORK, YOU NEED TO FIX IT. You follow these instructions at your own risk.