Configuring Reliance Netconnect(ZTE AC2738) with TP-Link TL-MR3020 3G Wireless Router

This post is about how to configure a Reliance Netconnect (USB 3G/4G dongle) with a TP-Link TL-MR3020 Wireless 3G router.

Prelude:  TP-Link MR3030 3G/4G wireless router is a small portable device which helps in sharing an internet connection from 3g/4G USB sticks/connections like Reliance Netconnect/Tata Photon/BSNL EVDO/Airtel etc over a Wifi network.

Some of the highlights of this produce are

• Very small and lightweight and aesthetics are pretty good (Have the looks of a apple product 🙂 )
• Powered via a mini USB port and the charger cable is a mini USB to regular USB which means you can power it by simply connecting it a laptop. Also if you have a car mobile charger you can power it up in the car and make your car a mobile wifi hotspot
• Have a RJ45 Ethernet port which can act as a wan port as well as a lan port depending on the mode of operation
• Supports 3 modes of operation
  3G/4G only mode: Primary internet connection is from the 3G/4G dongle connected to the USB port of the router and the RJ45 port will act as a LAN port.
  WAN/3G/4G mode: Primary internet connection is from the WAN and if its not working then it will fall back to the 3g/4g usb dongle. Note in this mode the RJ45 port will act like a WAN port.
  Note: This can be used in home as a always connected internet redundancy option
  WAN only mode: Primary internet connection is from the WAN port and 3g/4G is not used In this mode the RJ45 port works as a WAN port.

Out of the box, this router doesn’t support Reliance Netconnect (ZTE AC2738). The router will keep on identifying the device and then say conencting to it and then will get disconnected.   Following are the steps which I followed to make it work. Thought of sharing it as it may help others.

1. Firmware Upgrade: The default firmware which came with the device needs to be upgraded to the latest one for this to work.(
   Default Firmware which I got was: 3.14.2 Build 120817 Rel.55520n
   Upgraded firmware version : 3.15.2 Build 130326 Rel.58517
   Date of release of the new firmware: 18th April 2013
   Firmware Download Link:  http://www.tp-link.us/support/download/?model=TL-MR3020&version=V1 (if the site is down you get the same from here.
   Firmware file name: TL-MR3020_V1_130326
   Installing the firmware: Unzip/extract the downloaded firmware to a folder. Now go to the the TR3929 websetup click on SystemTools->Firmwareupgrade->and point to the extracted firmware image location.  Upgrade will take about 1 minute, wait for it to be complete and then proceed to step 2.
2. Configuring the 3G router: Now in the TR3020 websetup, click on Quicksetup, select 3G/4G router only mode ->Next->Select Country as India->Select the Service provider as “Reliance Netconnect” (there are multiple reliance profiles, so select the one with Dial number as #777 and APN is blank (read blank as nothing)”, Select manual option of entering username and password and put username as “net” and password as “net”->Next->Click next until you get finish

Thats it you are done, Now you should be able to connect to the internet.