Looks like I live in a communication black-hole in Bangalore - none of major Internet provider wants to serve our area. AirTel and all private players are in apology mode, and only one serving this area - The Grand PSU of BSNL - either doesn't respond (to the on-line connection requests) or gives weired responses - a pack of lies starting from "they don't serve this area" (most of my neighours have got BSNL phone) to no additional lines (!!), to (for their legendary EVDO) a tall building in neighourhood will block the signal!
Solution - never say die, and get some wireless dongle for Internet - I zeroed on Reliance Netconnect+ as this was the only other economic and possible option - the one from Tata's was slightly slow in my neighourhood - and yes, 3G from Vodafone, Airtel (GSM 3G) are costly, especially the initial investment in dongle was on higher side...some 2-4k extra, whereas CDMA dongle were coming free in some schemes.
So, some 7 months back I got a Reliance NetConnect+ CDMA (aka EVDO) dongle - gives good speed, only pain in the backside is that this could be used by a single user. My on-line searches told me this one - TP-Link's MR3020 is a reliable, cheap(INR 1806 on FlipKart) and small modem with an USB slot where a "dongle" could be fitted, and could be shared. Although it claims 3G / 4G only and doesn't say anything about CDMA dongle, but reading some forums told that this is possible.
Getting it (from FlipKart) was too easy - they delivered it in under 2 days. Starting was a bit troublesome - default firmware didn't reconginse my dongle - it was _NOT_ in the compatibility list - compatibility list says "ZTE AC2736" is supported, but I had "ZTE AC2737" with me. Updating firmware to latest too was useless - it kept on "identifying". A mail to TP-link (through the website) got a quick reply - they sent a firmware "mr3020nv1_en_3_12_11_up(120320).bin" - with a terse mail " Kindly check with the attached firmware. It will work fine.". And yes, it worked...here're the settings which worked for me:
IP address to access Model:192.168.0.254
Default ID/password: admin/admin
City: Bangalore
Service Provider: Reliance NetConnect+
Modem model: ZTE AC2737
3G/4G Router Model: TP-Link MR3020, Hardware Vesion V13G Settings: Dial Number: #777
APN: Blank - blank worked for me, other possible option was "internet"
MTU: 1480 ( default)
User-ID: Your 10 digit Reliance number - without any zero prefixed
Password: Your 10 digit Reliance number - without any zero prefixed
Update on 4-August-2014
As luck would have it, I'm in Faridabad now - although BSNL serves here, but it is not exactly a "service" as per the feedback from my neighbours. I tried to continue with Reliance Netconnect+ (CDMA), but it works in "1x" at many places which were on my travel-stay-n-travel list of last two months, so I decided to "replace" it - and finally "replaced" it (notice the double quotes) with "Reliance Netconnect 3G). Though they have provided me good service in last years (BigTV and NetConnect+) but still I am NOT a fan. However what hooked me again to them was this scheme of 3 months advance rental and a free (FREE- F.R.E.E....) dongle.
To have it work with my TP-Lin 3020, I had to change settings a bit. And yes, I did update the firmware to "TL-MR3020_V1_140610" as well.
IP address to access Model:192.168.0.254
Default ID/password: admin/admin
City: Faridabad
Service Provider: Reliance NetConnect
Modem model: ZTE MF190
3G/4G Router Model: TP-Link MR3020, Hardware version V1
3G Settings: Dial Number:*99#
APN: rcomnet
MTU: 1480 ( default)
User-ID: "" (Blank, nothing not even the letters B-L-A-N-K..., simply nothing, the null string!)
Password: Blank - same as User-ID
PS - There are many (3?) version of "Reliance Netconnect" which get shown in drop-down list of my 3G-router, each with different APN and dial-in number etc.; and a Google search did show all the different options are working for different persons. However I noticed that after running my Reliance 3G dongle directly from my computer, it had created a file "C:\NetworkCfg.xml"; these settings are picked up from this file, and are working flawlessly (so far...) for me!
Solution - never say die, and get some wireless dongle for Internet - I zeroed on Reliance Netconnect+ as this was the only other economic and possible option - the one from Tata's was slightly slow in my neighourhood - and yes, 3G from Vodafone, Airtel (GSM 3G) are costly, especially the initial investment in dongle was on higher side...some 2-4k extra, whereas CDMA dongle were coming free in some schemes.
So, some 7 months back I got a Reliance NetConnect+ CDMA (aka EVDO) dongle - gives good speed, only pain in the backside is that this could be used by a single user. My on-line searches told me this one - TP-Link's MR3020 is a reliable, cheap(INR 1806 on FlipKart) and small modem with an USB slot where a "dongle" could be fitted, and could be shared. Although it claims 3G / 4G only and doesn't say anything about CDMA dongle, but reading some forums told that this is possible.
Getting it (from FlipKart) was too easy - they delivered it in under 2 days. Starting was a bit troublesome - default firmware didn't reconginse my dongle - it was _NOT_ in the compatibility list - compatibility list says "ZTE AC2736" is supported, but I had "ZTE AC2737" with me. Updating firmware to latest too was useless - it kept on "identifying". A mail to TP-link (through the website) got a quick reply - they sent a firmware "mr3020nv1_en_3_12_11_up(120320).bin" - with a terse mail " Kindly check with the attached firmware. It will work fine.". And yes, it worked...here're the settings which worked for me:
IP address to access Model:192.168.0.254
Default ID/password: admin/admin
City: Bangalore
Service Provider: Reliance NetConnect+
Modem model: ZTE AC2737
3G/4G Router Model: TP-Link MR3020, Hardware Vesion V13G Settings: Dial Number: #777
APN: Blank - blank worked for me, other possible option was "internet"
MTU: 1480 ( default)
User-ID: Your 10 digit Reliance number - without any zero prefixed
Password: Your 10 digit Reliance number - without any zero prefixed
Update on 4-August-2014
As luck would have it, I'm in Faridabad now - although BSNL serves here, but it is not exactly a "service" as per the feedback from my neighbours. I tried to continue with Reliance Netconnect+ (CDMA), but it works in "1x" at many places which were on my travel-stay-n-travel list of last two months, so I decided to "replace" it - and finally "replaced" it (notice the double quotes) with "Reliance Netconnect 3G). Though they have provided me good service in last years (BigTV and NetConnect+) but still I am NOT a fan. However what hooked me again to them was this scheme of 3 months advance rental and a free (FREE- F.R.E.E....) dongle.
To have it work with my TP-Lin 3020, I had to change settings a bit. And yes, I did update the firmware to "TL-MR3020_V1_140610" as well.
IP address to access Model:192.168.0.254
Default ID/password: admin/admin
City: Faridabad
Service Provider: Reliance NetConnect
Modem model: ZTE MF190
3G/4G Router Model: TP-Link MR3020, Hardware version V1
3G Settings: Dial Number:*99#
APN: rcomnet
MTU: 1480 ( default)
User-ID: "" (Blank, nothing not even the letters B-L-A-N-K..., simply nothing, the null string!)
Password: Blank - same as User-ID
PS - There are many (3?) version of "Reliance Netconnect" which get shown in drop-down list of my 3G-router, each with different APN and dial-in number etc.; and a Google search did show all the different options are working for different persons. However I noticed that after running my Reliance 3G dongle directly from my computer, it had created a file "C:\NetworkCfg.xml"; these settings are picked up from this file, and are working flawlessly (so far...) for me!
