How To Connect Tata Photon Whiz/Plug2Surf With Ubuntu Linux

Tata Indicom has changed the face of wireless broadband in India. With its comparatively cheap unlimited offer, it is currently the best buy.

Tata Indicom offers unlimited surfing + download at Rs.800 per month. The offer is valid for Tata Photon Whiz. Although it operates at a compromised speed, it provides the advantage of unlimited surfing.

Tata Indicom Whiz has a dialer for Windows. However, many complain that there is no Tata Indicom dialer for Linux.

Well, there is no dialer because Linux has a dialer of its own which does the job. Follow these steps to setup your Photon Whiz with the “wvdial” dialer.

  1. Install “wvdial” if you do not have it already. To install wvdial, use the command:
    sudo apt-get install wvdial
  2. Next, plug in your Tata Indicom USB Modem.
  3. Now, create a dialer for your modem with the command:
    sudo wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

    This creates the appropriate dialer configuration for your modem. Remember to keep the modem plugged in while running this command.

  4. Edit the wvdial.conf file by issuing
    sudo vi /etc/wvdial.conf
  5. Your wvdial.conf file opens on issuing the above command. It should look like this :
    [Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CRM=1
Stupid Mode = 1
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = 0
ISDN = 0
Password = <password>
New PPPD = <username>
Username = internet
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 9600
  6. Now you have to edit the file.  Put “internet” in place of <username> and <password>. Do not change any other auto-generated entry. Place the appropriate phone number in place of 0. It is #777 for Tata Indocom.

That should complete setting up your dialer. Now, to dial a connection, simply execute

sudo wvdial

in a terminal window. Enjoy.

[ In case it still does not work, add the lines:

Init3 = AT+CRM=1

and

Stupid Mode = 1

Stupid mode allows the connection to dial through a firewall and Init3 = AT+CRM=1 prevents frequent disconnections.
Thanks to Prashanth for pointing this out in a comment to this post. ]

Published by

Chinmoy Kanjilal

Chinmoy Kanjilal is a FOSS enthusiast and evangelist. He is passionate about Android. Security exploits turn him on and he loves to tinker with computer networks. He rants occasionally at TomsVPN.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @ckandroid.

  • Prashanth

    In the 6th step, the, Init3 = AT+CRM=1, statement is not needed. I find that I cannot connect if I add that statement

  • Indian Art

    Thanks, nice tip!

  • Mahehi Karunatilleke

    I can't seem to get my Huawei E156G 3.5G HSDPA dongle to work with Ubuntu. Any help? My carrier is Mobitel (Sri Lanka)

    • Follow the same steps in this tutorial. In your case, the dialling number, the username and password might be different. You can get them from your service provider.

  • Romaan

    i tried to connect my photon whiz in ubuntu but every time i receive the error that my user name, password and phone number is incorrect whereas i changed the user name and password to "internet" and phone number as #777, still i failed…. can anybody help me ???

    • You have to use wvdial. The default network manager app wont work.

    • jaspal singh samplay

      It will not work with ubuntu. You may give a try to jolicloud linux, thats better than ubuntu and whiz works gud there.

      after installing jolicloud, insert whiz and it will show as same error as in ubuntu. then right click network applet and click edit connections tab. then select tata whiz and it will ask for authentication. fill password and then select connect automatically option. Close it and remove whiz. then again insert it and it will connect automatically. and have fun then. I am using it on my jolicloud (was having same errors on my ubuntu). Jaspal

  • Ali

    Hello,

    I have the TATA photon whiz. This has one wire with 2 conection of USB.

    If I have connected the two usb to my computer and conected the modem in the other site?

  • Sivakumar N

    Hi, How do I configure Tata Photon in Android platform?

    Regards,

    Sivakumar N

  • ananth

    last sunday i had bought tata photon whiz .
    i’ve been using linux operating system .but tata photon didn’t support.

  • srikant

    how can i make tata photon run on my apad tablet pc android 1.6n which supports 3g usb internet. plz help.

  • anjali

    Hi,
    I am using Tata Photon Whiz on ubuntu 10.04 .
    Also installed wvdial.
    But on connecting its shows an error : Carrier not found.

    Please help.

    • moonos

      For Ubuntu 10.04 it is so easy to set up.
      Under Mobile Broadband connection in Network Manager just edit the fields like……
      Number : #777
      User Name : internet
      Password : internet

  • rocketboi

    This is great… thank you so much for pointing out what the Stupid Mode and the Init3 does, I am using Tata + on Ubuntu (Lucid Lynx) as well as Windows. My connection speed was slow so I called the tata helpline and they advise me change some setting in windows, This is what they advise me to do and i did. “Right click on My Computer, select ‘Manage’, choose ‘Device manager’ and select the ‘Ports(COM&LPT)’ under that there was two options about the Huawei device, I right click those options, select ‘properties’ and form the ‘Port settings’ tab i change the ‘Bits per sec’ option form ‘9600’ to ‘115200’. There was a slight increase in speed. Now i am confused how to do this with Ubuntu. The tata device performs faster in windows. I am wondering what does the ‘Baud=9600′ line in the wvdial.conf file does? I ve tried changing it to 115200 but its still slow. am i doin it right? please help. thanks alot.

    • FIrebolt

      Hi,

      Even I am facing the same problem. Photon Plus works very slow on Ubuntu.
      Have you found a solution to this?

      Thanks

    • Sarav Sandhu

      I’m also facing slow speed issue on Fedora 17

      Have you found any solution to slow speed ?

  • Hi Chinmoy,

    Excellent post. Thanks for the tip.

    I was wondering if you could help me with something. Is there a way to use the Tata Photon Whiz so that it broadcasts a wifi signal, through which I can connect my iPod touch to the internet with?

    I tried using Connectify on Windows 7, then realized it doesn’t work without a wireless router. I can go out and get myself a router, connect Tata photon to my PC, start Connectify and create a wifi bubble. But isn’t this too much of a hassle?

    So the actual questions is – Is there a portable USB device, that runs on battery and fits in my pocket, that, when connected with the Tata Photon Whiz, understand that it is an Internet device and start broadcasting around me?

    If there isn’t, is there a market for this? :D

    If there is, please let me know. I can be contacted via email or phone – 9741900347.

    Thank you in advance.

    Regards,

    Rohit.

  • vinoth

    wvdial didn’t get installed. Error says ” reinstall java6- E:/Cannot find the archive file ”
    I need help to solve this problem

  • Chacko Mathew

    how can i setup tata photon whiz in my google android tablet pc

    thankyou

    chacko mathew

  • nishant

    after runing-“sudo apt-get install wvdial”.
    its showing..
    “reading package lists….Done
    building dependency tree
    reading state informatiom…..Done
    Package wvdial is not available,but is referred to by another package.
    this may mean that the package is missing,has been absoleted,or is only available from another source.
    E:package ‘wvdial’ has no installation candidate”

    • Raj

      do a “sudo apt-get update”.. and then repeat what u did.

  • kallol das gupta

    I have a tata photon+ i wish to connecct android version tablet with it can i or suggest me the modification i required

  • jahnab

    How do i run sudo apt-get install **** if I have no internet connection!!!

    can u provide a link to a debian package of wvdial with all the dependencies included???

  • Raj

    Nice post.. There is a “install_linux” file that comes with the CD which is not so helpful.. Hmmm.. one (stupid?) question.. is connecting from wvdial any faster than the ubuntu’s “mobile broadband” thing?..