Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with linksys

What is the best way to connect to two wireless networks simultaneously?

ilumos — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:57:37 -0800

What is the best way to connect to two wireless networks simultaneously? Best done with two seperate wireless cards with differently polarised aerials? Or can it be done with one card and clever software? I will be buying at least one Linksys WMP54G PCI and plan to connect to two seperate wireless networks from the same computer.

It's also worth concidering that these two networks may be on neighbouring wireless channels (9 and 10 for example) and may or may not use WEP/WPA.

It would also be good to load balance between the two networks as each will have its own seperate connection to the internet.

Many thanks,

ilumos

How can my wireless base station and extender play nice?

mkultra — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:03:31 -0800

How can my wireless router and extender make my entire network seamless? I've got a Linksys WRT54G (WPA2 password) as my base station and a Belkin F5D7132 Extender down the hall to extend the WAN to my office.

I've configured the Belkin to use the Linksys's credentials, and it's currently working using its own SSID. Under this method, I can machines connected to each SSID, and most of the data seems to flow OK. However, I've got two big hiccups (so far):

- I'm running AirTunes, attached to the Linksys. My desktop, which is attached to the Belkin, can't see it.

- I back up my laptop wirelessly to my desktop using Time Machine. Yes, I know, this is not a recommended use of Time Machine, but it's worked fine for ages. Now, I get a kernel panic (gray screen) whenever it tries to back up.

Is there a setting for making the entire network completely seamless? The documentation for the Belkin blows.

WEP troubleshooting

KokuRyu — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:53:07 -0800

Do you have any ideas why I cannot add machines to my el cheapo Linksys WRT150N wireless router once I have enabled WEP? I bought the wireless router about eight months ago. I have a tower I use as a workstation (it's connected directly to the router), and I enabled WEP and provided credentials (keys) to a laptop.

About a week ago, a laptop (the main one we use) was left on and unplugged while we were out (or something), the battery drained, and the laptop shut down. When I restarted it, the laptop could no longer connect to the Linksys router. For some reason I hadn't saved the access key (don't ask me why), so I had to reset the router in order to disable the security. The laptop can connect to the wireless router when there is no security enabled.

We live in an apartment building, and I'd rather not have an open network. However, for some reason our laptop will not connect when security is enabled.

To enable security, I either log into the web interface using the tower connected to the router, enable WEP, jot down the security key, and type it by hand on the laptop when trying to connect to the WEP-enabled router, OR I have inserted the Linksys startup CD into the tower, generated the security key, and then walked over to the laptop and typed in the key.

However, the laptop, although it can "see" the WEP-enabled router (SSID is being broadcast), cannot connect.

Or do I connect the laptop directly to the router, and set up WEP *that* way?

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

How do I make my wireless router play nice with my VOIP adaptor?

chinston — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:43:06 -0800

What's the best way to get my wireless router (Linksys WRT54G2) to play nice with my Vonage VOIP adaptor (Motorola VT 1005)? Frequently when I'm trying to upload somewhat sizeable files (e.g., like a minute-long movie to youtube), I lose my connection and have to reboot. I don't know much about networking, so please bear with me. My current set-up is cable modem --> Linksys wireless router --> VOIP adaptor --> PC running Windows XP. If I remove the wireless router from the equation, things seem to work fine. But otherwise, usually if I'm trying to upload some pictures to flickr or a short movie to youtube (or even sometimes when checking yahoo e-mail), my connection will disappear.

Weirdly, if I have a remote connection to my work network up at the time via Citrix, that connection will not be affected. And I still have phone service through Vonage. But I will not be able to access the web via Firefox or Internet Explorer. If I reset the wireless adaptor, that fixes the problem for a time until the next upload. I don't torrent or do any really huge data transfers.

I had this problem with a previous router - the Belkin Wireless pre-N router. I recently switched to the older Linksys model, hoping that would fix things. But it hasn't. This is frustrating since I rely on my wireless connection to stream music over to my Roku soundbridge, among other things.

I've googled and checked the manufacturers' web pages, but haven't been able to find help. Oh, and I have the most recent firmware version. My question is similar to this question about how visiting flickr and netflix kills an internet connection; I've just tried reinstalling flash and flashblock. It's also very similar to this question about a combination Vonage/Linksys router having to be reset, but there was no conclusive answer there.

I'm happy to provide more details if needed.

Help with wirelessly backing up laptop?

Phire — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:55:35 -0800

Help, Backup-Filter: "Access Denied" error when using Memeo's AutoBackup Software to wirelessly backup a laptop HD to a password protected external hard drive that is directy connected to the wireless router via USB. Asking for a friend:

I'm currently trying to use Memeo's Auto Backup program (v2.50.2785) to backup my laptop's Hard Drive to my external hard drive wirelessly.

The program is the Seagate branded version, and it came with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 GB external HD. The external HD is currently attached via USB to my Linksys WRT600N wireless router. I have mapped the network drive and can access it normally through windows explorer.

The software is able to select the HD as a backup location but it cannot actually write any files to it, due to an "access denied" error. I think this is due to the fact that the router has a mandatory password on the HD, which seems impossible to remove. I haven't been able to "give" the password to the backup program, either.

Additional potentially useful info: Even though no backup files are written, the file structure and location linker files for the back are still written to the HD... How did it gain access for that?

This only happens when the external hard drive is connected to the router. If the hard drive is connected directly to the laptop, it works fine.

Any thoughts on how to get this to work properly would be appreciated.

Slow wireless

pravit — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:09:31 -0800

I'm getting slow wireless speeds with the Intel 4965AGN and a Linksys Wireless-b router (BEFW11S4). Do I need to buy a new router? Just got my new laptop today (Fujitsu S6510) and I'm getting relatively slow wireless speeds. There's nothing wrong with the router, because my old laptop connects at the same speed that it did before (downloading at approximately 150KB/s). However, I only get speeds of 35KB/s - 80KB/s max with the new laptop. I already disabled 802.11n on the new laptop, which brought speeds up from 12KB/s to 35KB/s, but haven't found a way to get it any faster.

I installed the latest drivers for the Intel card, downloaded the latest PROSet software, and flashed my router the latest firmware. Google searches seem to turn up other people with this problem, and the only advice that I haven't tried is to buy a new router (this router is about 3-4 years old and only supports 802.11b).

I noticed that Intel PROSet has a "g" next to my wireless connection even though it only supports 802.11b. Could this be the problem? I've tried to force it to connect on b but can't find anything to do this. Or should I just save myself the hassle and buy a new router?

Routers not working properly

CliffDiving44 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:53:19 -0800

The last two routers I've owned, they needed to be reset every couple days to get my connection back. Now it happens with my new router, after months of it working perfectly. Any ideas? My first two routers were both standard Linksys routers, but this latest one is a Linksys WRTP54G Vonage router. Like I said, it worked perfectly and I didn't have to reset it until about a month ago, and now it happens once or twice a week. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but it's annoying and an inconvenience. Are all of these routers going bad because they're constantly on? Is there some setting that I'm not putting on?

Wireless timeout

underwater — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:46:00 -0800

Wireless networking problem...help? I'm using a Linksys WRT54GS wireless router with a Charter cable modem. My computer is using a USB Buffalo AirStation Wireless-G wireless connector. Win XP sp2. Using WPA-PSK TKIP encryption, but the problem is the same with WEP, and with or without firewall.

The connection times out about every 5 minutes or less. I looked up the previous questions about this. The weird thing is that when it reconnects (automatically), it shows 'connected' in Network Connections, and there is an IP address assigned, but there is no default gateway assigned--it's blank when I look at ipconfig. This is strange because I have 192.168.1.1 entered as the default gateway in Windows for tcp/ip, rather than letting it assign a default gateway. So how could it be blank?

And even stranger, this happens sometimes, but sometimes it reconnects with the right default gateway, and a correct IP address, but in both of these states I can't access the net or the router configuration page. It will act properly after I reboot, for a time. If I 'repair' the connection, it will often work for a time. But if it re-connects automatically, it won't. I can't ping when it's not accessing the net.

This timeout also happens with my roommate's laptop (Thinkpad), but when he automatically re-connects, it does actually work and he can access the net.

Any suggestions? It's driving me batty.

Help me get my new Airport to play nice with my old Linksys router

DandyRandy — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:10:24 -0800

I just picked up an Apple Airport Extreme and am attempting to integrate it into my home network, and my old router is jealous. My intent is to use the Airport to serve IP addresses to all my devices via DHCP, and use its wireless capabilities for my 802.11g computers (looking forward to 802.11n). I've pressed my old Linksys WRT54G into use providing wireless access to my 802.11b devices (2 wifi Internet radios), to isolate them from dragging down the .g devices' wireless access speeds. I've got the Linksys plugged into one of the LAN ports on the Airport, and the Linksys is getting its IP address (10.0.1.200) from the Airport's DHCP server. I've still got the DHCP server on the Linksys on, serving IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x range to my .b devices on the same subnet as the Airport. All that is working fine: all devices have internet access on their respective wireless networks.

The final step is for the .b devices to get their IP addresses from the Airport. That's what's not working. When I turn off the Linksys's DHCP server, the devices connected to its wireless network are getting IPs in the 169.254.x.y automatic private IP space. I've set the Linksys's config to both 'Gateway' (which is what it was when it was the only router on my network), and I've tried setting it to 'Router', with no further success.

Again, the Linksys' WAN address is getting 10.0.1.200 from the Airport's DHCP server, and I'm setting the Linksys LAN address to 10.0.1.201 (outside the Airport's DHCP range of addresses).

What am I missing here?

Small business networking hardware

prggr — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:32:44 -0800

Supporting about 35 computers and have had two switches (Netgear, Linksys) die in the last year. Looking for suggestions of brands we can stick with that are cheaper than Cisco. Our network is a mix of Linksys, Netgear, and I think maybe a d-link switch floating around somewhere. Our network has a single 8 port gigabit switch plugged into which we have a 16 port switch, several 8 port switches, Linksys wireless AP, our router/firewall, and the servers. About 8 months ago one of the 8 port switches died, and yesterday (yes, on a Sunday of course -- luckily I keep spare switches around), the 8 port gigabit switch died. I'm going to be chasing Netgear since they seem to have a decent warranty, but I'm now wondering if there is a decently reliable brand of switches that doesn't cost several arms and legs.

I'm just looking at unmanaged switches. We're going to be moving locations early 2008 and I figure it is a good time to get all the hardware setup with the same brand and same models so I can keep the correct spares in stock. Now, we haven't even had this entire setup for more than 2 years and most of the equipment is under a year old. With about 6-7 switches, having 2 go out so soon is really annoying and not good for business.

So, I'm quite willing to listen to any suggestions. I have poked around a bit this morning and noticed Cisco hardware is still way expensive, Netgear now offers a lifetime warranty (which only helps after the fact.. warranties sure don't keep hardware from failing), and that there are a bunch of various brands I don't know anything about.

Thanks again!

Wireless router doesnt work well.

milestogo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:23:00 -0800

WirelessFilter: My router has issues. A network cable gives me internet just fine, but if I am using wireless, the network often disconnects and will not connect. A little This happens on all the laptops in my apartment at about the same time, so I am reasonably confident it is a problem with the router. When I am connected via wireless, my network will often choose to randomly dissapear, refusing to be found. That, or it will be found, but will not be able to be connected to. This happens often and for long periods of time, and is very frustrating.
Plugging in a cable connecting my computer and the router always works. My usual solution is unplug/replug but that doesnt ever work here. I have tried reseting a couple times. Nothing. Diagnosis?

Who's hacked the Linksys NAS200?

TrueVox — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:56:43 -0800

Anyone have any experience with the Hackability of the Linksys NAS200? I realize that there's a lot out there on the Linksys NSLU2, but I'm looking into the NAS200 (it just looks beefier, for only a little more). It runs Linux just like the NSLU2, but a quick googling turned up nada. Are any of you Linksys Hackers? And if so, have any of you updated your NAS200? Or is the stock firmware SO SUPER GOOD that you don't need/want/arn't able to (I find the last one hard to buy, but who knows)?

Thanks!

How can I get my server to authenticate with my domain controller (which is located behind a linksys router)?

zzztimbo — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:53:16 -0800

I have a Windows 2000 server that is sitting in a public IP network. I can not figure out how I can get it to talk to my domain controller that is sitting in a private IP network with a linksys WRT54G sitting in between. Will port mapping solve this? I have already tried putting the domain controller in the WRT54G's DMZ. That did not seem to work.

Best router for a small company?

Macboy — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:27:02 -0800

What's the best router for a small business? I'm looking for a new router. My current router (linksys) is connected to two switches (60-70 users) for my DSL connection. My Linksys constantly needs to be rebooted.

Why won't anything but Google load?

imposster — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:01:13 -0800

Laptop connected to DSL via Linksys WRT54G - Connected by ethernet = no problem. Connected wirelessly = only www.google.com will load. A few more details:
Laptop - Dell Inspiron 2200, Win XP (SP2)

Also, I have two other computers that connect fine: one via ethernet and one via wireless (a Dell Inspiron E1705 running Win XP (SP2)). Neither of these two computers have any problems accessing every webpage I have tried.

That would suggest it has something to do with the one laptop. It's running AVG, so I've turned off the firewall - pages still don't load. Windows firewall, on/off - pages still don't load. Ping? Google pings with no packets dropped. Every other website, host not found. DNS flushed. Temp files and internet options purged. What am I missing? (As I mentioned earlier, when I plug in the ethernet cable from the router, all pages load fine.)

DHCP keeps timing out :(

Yelling At Nothing — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:03:02 -0800

What can I do to fix this DHCP problem with my Linksys router? It's been going on for a couple weeks, and I'm at a loss as to how to resolve it. Here's the skinny:

Comcast is the ISP, we're on a nice rented linksys router and motorola cable modem. There are five computers connecting to the router, 3 via ethernet and two wirelessly. The router's handling DHCP locally, but it seems to just die periodically.

What'll happen is this: I'll be surfing/downloading/gaming/whtaever, and I'll lose connectivity. Using windows to repair the connection fails, because it can't renew an IP address. Using ipconfig /release and /renew reveals that the DHCP server has timed out, and pinging the router at these times reveals packet loss. After five or ten minutes, everything works again.

This happens seemingly randomly, but frequently (probably once every hour or two, but possibly more often.)

I've tried most of the layman's router tech support stuff; unplug everything, powercycle, restart. Doesn't seem to help. Also ran through most of the tech support stuff on Linksys' website, and reset the MAC address and checked all the DHCP settings in the router control panel. Didn't have any luck there, either.

Anyone know what else could be causing this? I'd like to have it fixed.

My Wifi is Cursed

bofe — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:08:55 -0800

I'm having strange Wireless issues. I've tried two PCI cards (they were both LINKSYS WMP11 PCI Wireless-B Adapter) and a USB dongle (Netgear WG111T USB) in Windows XP and Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. Any time I get to the point where the wireless connection is being made, the computer completely freezes. No keyboard or mouse response at all. I have to shut the computer's power off. Any suggestions? More tech details:

The Wifi Router I'm trying to connect to:

LINKSYS WRT54G IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router. I'm running WPA PSK encryption on the AP.

I had the same problem with two of the Linksys PCI Cards on two different boxes. However, I've had no problem connecting various laptops to this access point.

Right now I'm restricted to Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) but I'm willing to use the PCI card or the USB dongle. Either way, I just want this to work. I had configured the PCI card and the USB adapter with ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant.

Remote wifi troubleshooting

diastematic — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:06:20 -0800

Help me figure out whether or not my parents' home wifi is password-protected. I'm helping my pops set up a new computer, his first laptop (Mac), from remote (I'm west coast, he's east coast.) I have the computer here and am pre-configuring it for him before I send it off.

Even though his current setup (PC) doesn't involve wireless, he does use a Linksys wifi router. Which is great for his new soon-to-be wireless life. So what I'm trying to figure out is if his wireless router requires a password.

I tried (with the help of Yuuguu on both ends) to access his router's admin utility, so I could look into this, but the default passwords for the admin utility don't match. I can't login.

I fear my only option would be to have Dad restart the router to default factory settings (then I could sneak in via Yuuguu and get things done) but I'm afraid that might blow his whole connection. And I'd hate to do that as he'd no longer have internet and I'd be unable to help in any way.

Any other ideas? Is there software I can run that'll tell me whether or not a wi-fi password is required? Thanks.

Death to cheap consumer routers

tumult — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:57:44 -0800

I'm tired of wireless routers that suck. Over the years, I've gone through four different Apple AirPorts (all different models, two were Extremes and one was Express) a couple of WRT54Gs (one was an S, which I tried two different versions of the firmware on, followed by DD-WRT and then OpenWRT. The other was a v6 with the vxworks built-in firmware) a couple of Netgears (don't remember the models) and using a computer with a PCI 802.11x card.

All of the routers were not so good and eventually died. The AirPorts would continue to get spotty until they could no longer be configured through the administrative interface. The WRT54Gs would first intermittently have their wireless go out until I restarted them, and then would eventually start crashing more and more frequently, and then eventually the administration panels would stop functioning. This happened with all of the various firmwares. The Netgears would sometimes act slow and seemed to drop connections frequently, and lacked the configuration power of the Linksys routers. The PC works ok, but I don't like having a huge honking PC where my cable comes in. I could run ethernet to the room with the rest of my computers, but then I would have to run ethernet back out to the original room to where my media center PC is, because that computer has to be wired (802.11b/g isn't fast enough to stream HD). I guess I could put a switch there with the cable modem, though.

I'm considering building a small, cheap PC to act as a router/fileserver, but I figured I'd see if anyone has some good suggestions here for a router, first. I'm willing to spend up to $250-$300, since that's what I'd spend on a new PC anyway.

I don't know if I'm cursed or what, but my second WRT54G just had its wireless "burn out" like the other one, so I'm willing to make a long-term investment at this point. This has all taken place over the course of three different residencies, so I guess cheap consumer routers just blow and there aren't ghosts in my outlets.

Help me choose new firmware.

homer2k1 — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:38:03 -0800

Help me decide between DD-WRT and OpenWrt (and others) for my new Linksys Router. Just got a new Linksys WRT54GL and am trying to decide between the above firmware upgrades (in addition to possibly HyperWRT Thibor or Sveasoft). I'm interested in anything you have to say (pros, cons, personal experience, etc.), specifically with the most/more recent versions of the upgrades.

If it matters, I dual-boot Ubuntu and WinXP on an older Dell Inspiron (not worried about the other computers on the network). Also, my ISP is Road Runner through Time Warner, in southern California. Thanks in advance, and happy Fourth!

Trying to figure out a WAP gateway problem

zek — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:01:46 -0800

Why is it that my WiFi doesn't work unless I go to TCP IP Settings > Advanced and delete the Default Gateway? Every day I have to take my laptop computer back and forth between a Linksys WAP and a Linksys WAP combo Ethernet-WAP, both of which are connected to the same 8-port router. I have no trouble connecting to either of the WAPs but I sometimes have trouble getting my Internets to work.

I can unplug the card and reboot my computer all I like to no avail, and I'll be connected to the WAP but not to the Internet. The one thing that is guaranteed to make things start working is to delete the default gateway in Networking > TCP IP configuration. After I delete this, the Internet comes up in 2 seconds. Windows always sticks 192.168.1.1 in there when I'm done but the connection works. If I look at Linksys > Link Information I can see that one WAP does use a gateway of 192.168.2.1 and the other of 192.168.2.188.

From what I've seen my Internet only gets stuck if my laptop goes into Standby mode.

If there is no good explanation, then teach me to fish... are there any good tutorials that will help me wrap my head around gateways, routers, bridges, and that kind of thing without assuming I have a graduate-level understanding of networking?

Can you plug two WRT54Gs into a router?

rolypolyman — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:22:55 -0800

Is there any reason I wouldn't be able to plug two Linksys WRT54G WiFi devices into a Linksys BEFSR81 LAN router? Will the WRT54G's play nice or will they fight with one another, requiring configuration to be done? SSIDs will be different of course.

Help, the routers going wonky and hates macs!

zia — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:58:05 -0800

Help! Strange networking issues... can a mac cause a router to go completely bonkers? We just set up a new office and got a linksys 802.11g 2.4 ghz wireless router with speedbooster. We've found that it works just fine with the sole windows user in the office, but the minute the macs get on, the router starts going down every 10 minutes. Eventually it becomes so unstable that no one, not even the pc user, can use it as it has to be reset every 10 minutes. After the reset it works fine for another ten minutes, rinse and repeat!

One thing that maybe happening is the wlan goes down, but as I know practically nothing about networking, I have not a clue.

This is the second router (we returned the first one cause we thought it was defective).

Please help, this is driving us crazy!

The repair connection was NOT completed, liarpants. :(

Glitter Ninja — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:16:29 -0800

Why can't I maintain a stable internet connection, and what can I do to fix it? I'm living in a home using whatever RoadRunner's residential ISP service is, with my parents using AOL in conjunction (though that shouldn't have anything to do with it.)

For the past month or so, I've had trouble maintaining a stable connection- it'll go out and not come back up for minutes at a time, and go back down randomly, as frequently as once every three minutes.

What you should know:

-we have a linksys wireless router.

-we have RoadRunner through Time Warner Cable. This occurs when the cable is still on.

-the program is on both computers, a compaq desktop using a linksys wireless adapter via usb and an HP Pavilion laptop using the built in wireless card, so I don't think the problem is with the computers.

-both computers are used almost exclusively in the living room, about ten feet from the router, so I don't think it's a distance issue.

-sometimes windows tells me I have a connection, and I'm sending packets, but not recieving.

-often windows will tell me there are multiple wireless networks to connect to, but when I go to look, there's only one network (ours) or none. It won't just automatically conenct to the home network, and even if I select to connect to ours, the "multiple wireless networks available" message comes back up.

-the cable guy came and checked it out, ran all new wiring, and said everything checked out on his diagnostic tests,

-all the lights that are supposed to flash on the router and cable box do- all the ones that aren't, don't.

-I have the latest firmware for the router.

-I've tried, to no avail to fix it by resetting the router (via the reset button on the back, as their help line reccomended to me).

So, oh, hive mind, what can I do to surf the web in stable, high-speed peace?

Problems with routers, Xbox360s, and UPnP.

CliffDiving44 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:09:18 -0800

My cable connection keeps losing connection when UPnP is enabled, but I need it enabled to keep my Xbox360s connected. Why is this happening? First of all, my house has 6 TVs, 2 laptops, and Vonage VoIP on our Comcast cable connection. I bought the linksys wrtg54g router when the linksys befw11s4's wireless stopped working, but I've since switched back to the befw11s4, and it works pretty good now.

Now on to the question.. my routers have always lost their connection every couple days, but would connect again if I manually reset the router. It has happened with both my linksys befw11s4 router (the one I'm using now), and with my newer linksys wrtg54g. This wasn't such a problem for me, until my friends and I wanted to use more than one Xbox360 on my connection. We hooked them all up to the same router, and the Xbox360s all lost connection about 10 minutes after connecting. The connection was only lost on the Xbox360s, not on any TVs or laptops. Comcast told us that we didn't have enough bandwidth to run the Xbox360s all at once, but we used to use 4 PS2s all at the same time with no problems whatsoever. I finally solved this problem of the Xbox360s cutting out by updating my router's firmware and enabling UPnP, but now the laptops and the VoIP both lose connection very frequently with UPnP enabled. It seems that the connection is fine with UPnP enabled until a second or third laptop connects. I've been switching UPnP on when I use the 360s, and off when I'm done, but that's a hassle, and I'm sure this problem is not normal. I don't think it's the router because it happens with both of them, but I'm not sure. Also, Comcast hasn't been much of a help with this situation. Even the routers cutting out every couple days and needing a hard reset to connect again is weird to me, so this issue with the 360s and the UPnP further frustrates and confuses me.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be the problem here? Thanks.