Setting up a 3G/4G Wifi network on the GO!

I have been using the Tata Photon Plus internet dongle for quite sometime now. I have a nice and reliable network at my home, work and on the go. The difficulty is sharing the network with my other devices (phone, tab, other laptop, wife's phone). I tried the Virtual Router hotspot software, but it just didn't cut it and you will always need a laptop powered on.

I Goggle-ed  the net for a Wifi router to which I can attach my 3G dongle directly and aftersome searching I selected TP-LINK TL-MR3020 

 

The router is powered using a micro USB cable which can be attached to your laptop or a power adapter (provided with the router)

It took me under a 15 minutes to unpack and configure the router. It has a nice and simple web-based interface for configuration and monitoring. Power on and connect to the wifi router, just type 192.168.0.254 in our network browser.

The first thing you should do is change the admin password.

Then follow the Quick Setup and connect to your 3G service

Step1

Step 2

Select your location and the ISP provider. For India, aprt from Tata it includes Airtel, BPL, BSNL, Idea, MTNL, Orange, Reliance, Spice and Vodafone.

Keep the authentication to Auto. The rest of the field are populated based on your ISP.

Step 3

Enter a unique name for your Network and set a password (do not set it to 987654321 ;-)  )

Finally.

Check your 3G network Strength on the Status link

Try placing the the router at different locations so as to get good signal strength.

Now connect your devices and enjoy your new WIFI  :-)