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!
Can you please guide me from where will I get this file i.e. "mr3020nv1_en_3_12_11_up(120320).bin" ??
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteSorry for the late reply. Could you please check this with TP-Link's support site: http://www.tp-link.in/support/contact/
They do reply almost instantly.
Alternatively, try dropping a mail to TP-LINK India
Thanks,
ALB.
Did you enter the APN as " Blank " or leave the complete field without entering anything?
ReplyDeleteHey - a late reply, as usual.
DeleteI left APN completely blank - not a single character, not even a space...i.e. a completely empty field and not "blank" or "Blank" or " ", but "" - without the quotes.
ALB
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI also have Reliance Netconnect+ device with model EC1260 (Huawei) and I recently purchased TP Link MR3020 router. What I found is that it was working fine in chandigarh (tested only for 1 day) and once I reached my hometown (Himachal), it stopped working with reliance device.
What difference I noticed that, in my hometown (when I directly connect netconnect+ device to my laptop) I am only getting 1x speed (not broadband+).
Router has identified the netconnect device, but remains in Connecting status.
Do you know if this router will support 1x speed dongles? Or just broadband+ and 3g/4g dongles only?
Appreciate your help in advance.
Hi Lucky,
ReplyDeleteI did use this router in HP itself on 1x speed. It was very slow, sometimes it used to take a long time even to identify/connect. Even connecting it (dongle) directly to my computer used to fail. Contacting Reliances's call-center was not very helpful and I had to get rid of it.
But yes, it was eventually connecting in Shimla and Solan.
I think (think...a guess and don't have any scientific bases for this) that 1x is so slow that this router keeps on thinking that it is not even connected.
Unfortunately in HP NetConnect (CDMA) does not provide that high/broadband speed and 1x is all it could give. Not a single town - including Shimla - is covered with Broadband. However with 3G they are slightly better - in Shimla (and in a few villages nearby, I don't know about the rest of HP) they do provide good 3G connectivity.