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Most of us know 3G data connection given by BSNL and it just lightening fast – I love it. It just works like a charm when you insert it in WINDOWS no head-ache nothing, the moment you insert the USB card – a popup will ask you to install the required desktop software for this tiny modem. But this is not the same behavior in LINUX with little bit of tweaks you can easily get this working in UBUNTU.
I use UBUNTU LINUX OS and I was trying hard to get this working in my laptop. After spending few good hours I was able to get it working smoothly. I will share my findings here in a step by step procedure to get this card working in your UBUNTU OS - I have not tried it in any other LINUX OS, if any of you had faced any problem, let us know.
I was using BSNL Card Teracom LW272 and UBUNTU 10.4 net-book edition. Follow these steps to get this data-card working in your UBUNTU machine:
- Copy PCL_COMNLG.tar.gz from your USB card and place it anywhere in your UBUNTU machine. You can’t get this from UBUNTU. With some tweaks you can get this file.
- Insert this USB card in any of WINDOWS machine (hope this is not installed already).
- It will show two drives, just get inside those drives and you will see this file inside “Linux” folder.
- Install the following packages:
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aptitude update
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aptitude install wvdial
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aptitude install libxplc
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aptitude install pppdcapiplugin
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- Extract this tar file, use this command:
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tar -zxf PCL_COMNLG.tar.gz - this would have created a separate folder called "PCL_COMNLG"
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- Installation:
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cd PCL_COMNLG
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sudo ./install.sh - this command will install the required software, make sure you have not inserted your 3G card. - after installation you will see a software called "Join_Air" and you should see in your Internet>>Join_Air - after restarting the machine, you may not see this software - don't panic - open the terminal and type Join_Air it will load the software - make sure you don't close this terminal.
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Have a happy installing!
BTW, I must say I am getting a pretty decent speed with BSNL 3G connection 
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Karthika
/ October 8, 2010Great post from an expert and it will be a great knowledge to us and thank you very much for sharing this valuable information with us
You keep writing and I’ll keep reading
Nizar
/ September 2, 2011That was a good post, thanks. But I have got a few questions on the working of BSNL 3G datacard visiontek in Ubuntu10.4. I had installed the modem from the “Linux” folder which u see as soon as u plugin the dongle. I was able to get the connection also. But it gets disconnected every 5mts. I reside in a place where there is a bsnl tower.It doesnt work faster as expected. Can I change some settings from my side and get a faster speed?The sole purpose of purchasing the card was for video chating.
Rakesh Sankar
/ September 2, 2011Hmm.
Interesting, I have not changed anything so far and it works the great. BTW, I live in Bangalore and most of the place we have good response from the tower – so I can’t judge with that.
Please try to send me your settings/configuration details, I will have a look at it. Worst-case you might have to get it done from BSNL folks.
Nizar
/ September 2, 2011Thanks Rakesh for that.I had given Phone = *99#
and also APN as bsnlnet. All other fields are left blank. I live in Trivandrum and for my other bsnl mob connections, I have full range.
Rakesh Sankar
/ September 15, 2011Sorry I couldn’t get back to you on time, but I am sure you might have to work-it out with local BSNL folks.