Using BSNL wa3002g4 router as a WIFI switch for Tata wimax connection

Note: If you are not in India or if you are not currently using either BSNL or Tata broadband connection, then you can save a couple of minutes by ignoring this post. πŸ˜‰

Before I moved to Bangalore, I was having a BSNL broadband connection at Chennai. I bought the wa3002g4 WIFI router from BSNL. Now after moving to Bangalore, I took Tata wimax broadband connection.

Tata wimax doesn’t come with a wifi router and my old BSNL router was lying around. So I thought of using my BSNL router as a switch to convert my wired connection to a wireless connection. After some struggle I succeeded and thought of documenting it here so that it will be helpful for someone who is looking to do the same thing and I can also refer to it in future, if I need to do it again.

Multi-functional device

First thing to know is that, the wifi router (wa3002g4) provided by BSNL is a multi-functional device. It can act as an ADSL modem, a wifi router and also as a switch.

Connecting the wires

First, you need to remove the ADSL cable from the BSNL router and then connect the output cable from Tata wimax modem into any of the four slots of BSNL router. If you need to share the connection with a desktop without wifi card, then you can connect the cable from the desktop network card to one of the other slots in BSNL router. Like wise you connect up to three other computers.

Configuring the router

Now login to your router admin console and disable DHCP. Enter a SSID for your connection and password protect it using WEP or WPA. (WPA is recommended)

Now switch on everything and enable wifi in your laptop. Connect to the router using the password you created. After the connection is established log on to the Tata wimax admin console and enter your username and password. Now you should be able to browse the internet using wifi.

I guess the router can also be used as a switch with other broadband providers, but I am not sure. If you have tried to setup connection with other providers, then do let me know about it in the comments. πŸ™‚

Update: If you are not able to log into the Tata Indicom web dialer page simultaneously in both the computers, then call up Tata Indicom customer care and ask them to enable "NAT" for your connection. Once enabled, you can use connect using multiple computers, without individually logging in each of them separately.

Update 2: I have since moved on from Tata Indicom connection. I currently use this router to share WiFi signal across floors in my home.

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76 Comments so far

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  • Ajay says:

    You need to have the DHCP disabled on the Wifi router acting as a switch now. I think you have done this and missed that step here. It should be in disabled mode that you can get the ip from your actual modem

    • Sudar says:

      @Ajay,

      Actually I have mentioned about disabling DHCP (Under the Configuring the router heading) in my blog post. I guess, I should have made it little prominent.

  • Rahul Kumar says:

    well sudar..it was a good tutorial it would have been better if it was more detailed as in for the router details configuration…like i use netgear dg834g router
    and tataindicom connection..if u cud provide me with critial values like

    Multiplexing Method
    VPI
    VCI
    DSL Mode

    it would be quite helpfull…

    • Sudar says:

      @Rahul,

      We are going to use the router as just a switch, so it doesn’t matter what ever we configure for VPI, VCI and DSL, since these configuration will come to effect only when used as a router.

      The only things that we need to keep in mind is to disable DHCP in the router and enable “NAT” in Tata Wimax (by calling customer care).

      Let me know if you face any issues. All the best πŸ™‚

  • Sagar says:

    Hi,
    I am struggling to make my wa3002g4 router work with Tata Indicom WiMax connection. They have provided me with static IP. Do you have detailed steps like which values to put in where ?

    Thanks,
    Sagar.

  • vishnu says:

    Hi,

    I would like to know whether the wifi router can be configured with a dynamic ip. Will there be any difference between configuring with static ip and configuring with dynamic ip?

    • RAHUL S says:

      When u need to access the wifi router for any configurations.. then it wil b betr to assign static ip for the router.. if not u wil have to check it everytimewhenever u have enter into the console

  • Nanjappa says:

    Sudar ,
    the article was very informative , i followed the steps as mentioned and called the Tata Wimax (by calling customer care) and enabled the NAT also.
    While changing to NAT they changed my static Ip to “obtain ip address automatically” settings.
    the problem now is that i am able to connect to wi-fi and it show(in vista) connected to internet but the web-pages does not seems to load.
    And at sometimes when it gets connected the connection breaks up intermittently , please let me know if you have any suggestions.

    • Sudar says:

      @Nanjappa,

      This happened to me once after enabling NAT. I called up customer service and they disabled and enabled NAT and it started to work.

  • sumne says:

    Sudar & Others,

    I have setup a wifi router with my tataindicom wimax connection. The login page appears for my desktop and laptop and everything works fine. After login-in from my desktop or laptop, I am able to surf on mobile through wifi too.

    However much later, if I try to connect from my mobile through wifi. It throws me a totally different login page of tataindicom wifi account, which is very annoying. I am guessing its figuring out the browser’s user agent setting as a mobile and throwing me the tataindicom wifi login page.

    Have you faced this situation and were you able to resolve the same ?

    Thanks in advance,
    Sumesh

    • Sudar says:

      @Sumne,

      I haven’t used tata wimax with mobile, so didn’t faced this issue before.

    • Nanjappa says:

      Sumne ,
      call up the tata indicom guys and ask them to disable the login page.
      and then ask them to enable NAT. you should be fine i guess.

      • KK says:

        They (custmer care), to disable the login page, you will have to buy Static IP which costs 2000+ taxes for 1 year…this is bad and doesnt make sense to me.
        later they told they do not have the technology to support login from mobile…this is kiddish….

  • SANTBIR says:

    I have an WA3002G4 bsnl modem. I couldn’t login my modem with 192.168.1.1 IP
    to configure please help me.

    • Sudar says:

      @Santbir,

      Assign the default gateway as 192.168.1.1 in your network adapter settings and you should be able to access it. Let me know if you are able to access it.

  • Bharath says:

    Can i use the same router to configure with Sify broadband…. As it comes with sify client which need to be logged in first to connect to net….

    I have recently brought laptop and need wireless and wired to be configured for it.

    Plz help me…

    bharathlua@gmail.com

  • nitish says:

    HI all,
    I have a tata indicom broadband connection(not wimax). I also have a huwaei smartAX MT841 wifi router from a previous BSNL connection. Is it possible for me to connect the above mentioned wifi router with the tata router to have a wifi set up? Will the method mentioned in the post work in my case also? I don’t have a static ip address.
    Thanks

  • Dev says:

    I’m using sify broadband wimax connection. i having a laptop. i wanna to configer wifi router in sify broadband connection. al thogh its coming with wired from wimax modem. can any one tell which wifi router is best for my sify connection. and how my client will log in after connecting wifi ?
    at time how many laptop can connect to wifi with sify, they only give two mechine ID.

    HELP HELP HELP

  • Vinoo Uttarkar says:

    Sudar,

    You rock mate!! You rock!!
    I was able to get my netgear router working by following the steps given by you.

    I was almost going to smash it into pieces but got lucky to get to your site..

    thanks a lot

  • Dr Urs says:

    Thank you very much, even the tata wimax guys dont know this. you made my day and saved me 3000 rs

  • Shashank says:

    Thanks a lot! This post helped me a great deal in using my bsnl type IV modem with tata indicom wimax a couple of months back.

    Recently, however, I lost all the settings on the modem inadvertently and I am not able to get wi-fi working with tata indicom again. I have tried everything including performing a hard reset of the modem (using the round hole at the bottom) and then disabling DHCP. After this, I am still not able to ping the wimax router (I have set different IP addr for the wi-fi router) from my laptop.

    It would be very useful if you can take backup of your wifi modem settings (from router webpage -> management -> settings -> backup) and make it available someplace. Would be grateful if you can mail it to me on shashank {dot} jain {_at_} yahoo {dot} com.

  • Siva says:

    Hi Sudar,

    your documentation is very good. But i am not able to follow it as i am not very good at technical details.Can you please clarify my doubts.
    1. I have a wire coming from the wimax antenna and is connected to data out of the tataindicom modem. DO i have to connect this directly to the wa3002g4.

    Thanks

    • Sudar says:

      @Siva,

      Leave the existing connection as it is now. Then take another network cable and then connect it to the other port in tata indicom modem and the wa3002g4 modem. Take one more cable and connect your wa3002g4 modem and your computer. (if you have enabled wifi, then you don’t need to make the second connection)

      • Siva says:

        Hi Sudar,

        Thanks for your reply.
        I tried the steps. I was able to connect to internet using a second cab;e from the router.But When i tried to connect with the wireless connection, it remains in ‘Acquiring network address’ status.

        Now I have made some changes and i am not able to access the admin page at 192.168.1.1.

        Can you please send me the steps to be followed.

        Thanks

        Regards
        Siva G

  • vinay says:

    hi Sudar,

    I have tat wimax connection, I’ve type 4 wa3002g4 router, I need to use internet on my desktop through LAN and also use Wifi to use internet in my laptop. How can I configure my router and how connections are made to use in desktop. Can you please clarify my doubts.

  • Chaitanya says:

    Today I have got hathway cable internet… Can we use this wa3002g4 with this buddy?

    • Sudar says:

      I have not tried using the router with Hathway. Let me know how it works out.

      • Chaitanya says:

        I just tried to follow the steps but got stuck at TATA wimax admin console step. Would there be a similar console page for hathway cable internet?

        • Sudar says:

          I am not sure if Hatway has a console page. Ask their customer support and they should be able to help you.

        • Tushar says:

          Hi,
          I have a hathway broadband connection with Dynamic IP. And I want to set it up with both my laptop and my pc using BSNL WA3002G4 router so that both my computers can use same internet connection at same time. I have tried it a lot..but could not succeed. If you get some solution plzz let me know.

  • Srikanth says:

    Worked like a charm. However I’m not able to browse in laptop using Wifi connection, but the IP Adress , default gateway and DNS are all set in the laptop, but still im not able to browse.
    Should I make any additional settings in the Wi-fi configuration in the router page?

  • suresh alapati says:

    hi, u have given example for tata wimax but i am having wired net connection from local cable network if i connect the wired cable to bsnl modem and then connect my laptop to wifi is it possible…….

    • Srikantha B says:

      Hi, it should be possible. I have configured my tikona cable broadband connection. Connect the cable coming from the cable modem to the old BSNL wifi modem and disable dhcp as explained. I u r able to detect and connect to wifi in ur laptop then u will be able to connect to Internet. Some times u may have to launch the login page of ur connection manually if the automatic redirection doesn’t work.
      Srikantha B

    • Rahul says:

      yes.. you can ..

  • Siva says:

    Hello,

    I have seen the method of using the BSNL router with Tata Wimax Broadband. However, I could not try the same as the Line in of the Tata Connection has a 8 cable and bigger plug. my trial for getting an adapter did not yield the result. can anyone help me out?

  • Siva says:

    Hello Sudar

    I have seen the method of using the BSNL router with Tata Wimax Broadband. However, I could not try the same as the Line in of the Tata Connection has a 8 cable and bigger plug. my trial for getting an adapter did not yield the result. can you help me out?

  • santu says:

    i have wa3002g4 modem.can u please tel me how to connect this router to beamTelecom internet

  • BKR says:

    Hey Sundar,

    Good post.. and great findings.. πŸ™‚ It worked well. The only issue i am facing is frequently disconnection.

    I have asked tata guys to enable natting’ .. even i have asked them to disable and a day after again enabled. Even that havent helped me. I had a doubt about my virus scanner (kaspersky) even i removed that. still its not helping.

    Any idea what will be the issue ??

    • Sudar says:

      Initially I had issues with my antenna. After much struggle, they replaced my antenna and it started to work properly after that.

      • BKR says:

        Thanks Sudar,

        If its the problem with the antenna, how its working perfectly on a single system. Only when i connect multiple (of course with wa3002g4) systems the issue is there..!!

        it works for 5 to 10 mins and then gets disconnected

  • Kiran Biliyawala says:

    Hiiii
    I had BSNL connection and wants to use that router for my new connection which is not wireless. And in the description you have written “Configuring the router”. I couldn’t understand that. So please kindly describe my that in some simple words or a specific method that i can apply.
    Reply me (through mail-if possible) as much earlier as possible.

    • Sudar says:

      The method which I have specified here works only when you try to use your BSNL modem with Tata wimax connection. Under the “Configuring your router” I have specified the steps that you have to follow to configure it.

      I am not sure what are the steps to configure it for a BSNL connection.

  • Safi says:

    Hi Sudar,

    Thanks a million for the easy to use steps you’ve given. I have a broadband connection and wanted to use my old BSNL router for WiFi.When I googled, I got an exact match and came to your blog.

    I think your steps would work for any type of connection as it worked for me. Here is my setup if it could help others. I have a BSNL router with active connection setup on the top floor. I use another desktop computer at the ground floor so I connected it using a LAN cable. Now I wanted my phone to use WiFi which was not connecting from the top floor. I had another BSNL unused modem with me so I thought I could use that at the ground floor and connect my desktop as well as my phone through WiFi. I had trouble configuring it and hence I googled the issue. I used your easy to use steps above, disabled DHCP and configured WiFi.

    One thing I did differently was that I gave a static IP to my router at the ground floor since without that both my routers (one at the top and ground floor each) were having ip conflict with same ip number 192.168.1.1

    So I think this is not restricted to Tata Wimax and can work with any broadband connection.

    Thanks again,
    Safi

  • Atuldas NB says:

    Hi,

    I confirgured my bsnl VMC AN1020-21 modem as switch for tataindicom wimax by following the above mentioned steps. I am able to connect to my laptop, also multiple laptops. But i am not able to connect to internet through my mobile using wifi. The mobile is connecting to switch(router) through wifi but websites are not loading. pls help..!

  • kaladharkvk says:

    Hi,

    I m kaladhar. i took reliance connection. I m planing to buy new modem. i tried old connection bsnl wa3002g4 modem with me. I searched in internet so i found this link. I follow the steps its working in macbook pro.

    It really working well. Thank you Very Much

    Regards,
    Kaladhar

  • Anshu says:

    Friend!!

    This is indeed a great post. However, I have tried this thing to disable DHCP earlier and that gives 169.x.x.x ip address to my laptop.

    OKAY! Here I am talking about BSNL UTStarcom Wifi Router/Switch and BSNL WiMax connection.

    Everytime I reset my Wifi Router to Factory Defaults, it lets me connect to BSNL WiMax through wireless connection (obviously, I connect LAN cable from WiMax Adapter to Wifi Router). At this point my laptop takes 192.169.0.x ip address which is from WiMax adapter.

    Now, problem arises after a while when the router automatically broadcasts 192.168.1.x ip address and breaks my laptop’s connection to the WiMax router.

    Any suggestions?

    Cheers,
    Anshu

    • Sudar says:

      Anshu,

      I tried configuring only Tata WiMax connection. So I am not sure how to configure it for other operators.

    • Rahul says:

      169.X.X.X is the address produce by your own system.. Automatic Private IP Address..when your laptops takes 192.168.0.X IP means.. you will just have to share internet on wifi router… you are only few steps away.. just enable ppp on wifi router.. there is no problem on your dhcp

  • Manoj says:

    Wow… it works like magic… Thanks a lot, Had to a lot of google to reach but it was Worth…

    Keep it up…Thank You

  • Anonymous says:

    I did not disable DHCP but it is still working. However, not able to connect to the admin console of router at 192.168.1.1

    • Rahul says:

      You will have to assign 192.168.1.X (X=2,3,4,…224) address for your system manually.. THEN YOU WILL BE ABLE to contact your router.. so that START–>RUN–>type “ncpa.cpl”.. choose your ethernet card–>properties–>ipv4–>properties–>use the following ip address–>type ip address–> press tab key–>click ok..

  • Rahul says:

    I have connected and bsnl wimax with dsl router and its working by doing some configurations on it.. i have connected the lan output of wimax to one of the lan ports of wifi router and so that i can use other 3 ports for lan computers and im using almost 16 wifi hosts.. tada…

  • Amit says:

    Hi All,

    I have moved from BSNL Broadband to Airtel Broadband. Airtel broadband connection comes with Binatone (DT 850W) with wifi and 4 LAN ports. I want to connect my existing BSNL Modem (ADSL II Huwaei) to work only as Wifi and Ethernet switch to access internet from another room to Phone and another PC. I have disabled DHCP and connected the PC ethernet to BSNL modem. Now my PC has connected to Internet. But I am not able to access internet through wifi on Phone.

    Please help!

    Amit

  • Sumit Bhartia says:

    I have recently taken aBSNL wimax connection in which BSNL has provided me with ZTE modem. I have connected a prolink wifi router with the wimax. Now i can browse internet through wifi in my laptop without any difficulty; but my android phone is showing the signals but internet is not working. I tried with another android phone still situation is the same. I rebboted/ restored to factory defauls the router many times but still situation is the same. I tried by changing the wifi router also but nothing happened.

  • Pra5hanth says:

    Hi Sudar,

    Firstly a big thank you for your write-up at http://sudarmuthu.com/blog/using-bsnl-wa3002g4-router-as-a-wifi-switch-for-tata-wimax-connection/!

    Thought I’d let you and all the other folks here know that I just tried this with and ACT Broadband – UT Starcom WA3002G4 combo and it worked like a charm.

    I’ve contacted the ACT Broadband guys to see if they can enable NAT to and see if that works and get multiple comps to access the net simultaneously.

    Will update progress.

    Thanks again!

    PS: There’s another link on ACT BB + UT Starcom WA3002G4 at https://broadbandforum.co/threads/configure-adsl-utstarcom-wa3002g4-as-a-switch.54704/. I tried that but couldn’t find any options to ‘select dynamic ip address’ as suggested. It didn’t work for me but could work for others πŸ™‚

    • Devdatta says:

      Hi Prashant,

      Any luck with getting NAT enabled from ACT broadband? I am having the same issue. I am able to connect only one device at a time through ACT broadband.

      Thanks,
      Devdatta

      • Pra5hanth says:

        Hi Devdatta,

        Sorry to be responding so late, I’d spoken to the ACT guy and he said no to NAT.

        However for the past month or so, I am able to connect two PCs, I have to first log in to the wi-fi network that emanates from the router from each of the PCs, and then log in the ACT portal through a browser. However when I connect a third device in a similar fashion one of the first two get dropped.

        It must be something ACT has done because i didn’t anything at my end : )

  • Jayakrishnan says:

    Thanks very much for this article. The tip really helped me to use my BSNL modem as wireless router for the cable internet connection that I have now. I also have recommended the same to few of my friends.

    But every time when I switch on WIFI either in my laptop or phone, it prompts me to enter the username/password of the service provider. It seems this is possible to overcome if we store these details under PPPoE configuration settings in a normal wireless router. Is it possible to set the same in this modem as well? Please help.

    Thanks in advance.

    • Jayakrishnan says:

      Below is an article I chanced upon, but in vain. I would like to know whether disabling the DHCP and the ones mentioned in this article can apply.

      http://manoj-bhat.blogspot.in/2009/02/configuring-bsnl-dataone-broadband-for.html

      • Pra5hanth says:

        Hi Jayakrishnan,

        I could be wrong but I think that only works on BSNL Landline Broad Band.

        I did try automating a browser based log-in to the ACT portal using some batch-files I googled(these are scripts that can load a browser, open a site and and log in using credentials inputted in the script), my plan was to use them along with Windows task scheduler to do so at start up/wake up/wi-fi network detection, but it didn’t work a couple of times and I gave up…

  • I have a Netgear WNDR4300 N750 router. How to set it up for BSNL broadband?

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