Connect PC to internet using BSNL GPRS

I am writing this blog post to help those people who are unable to connect to internet using BSNL GPRS using a PC.

My Devices
Phone: Nokia 7210 Supernova
Laptop: Compaq CQ601-TU running on Ubuntu Linux 10.04
My plan : To activate BSNL GPRS one month unlimited plan.
My Fault: I activated the one month unlimited plan without receiving.

First thing I did was to configure my laptop using these settings

How to use Nokia to connect to internet in Ubuntu

There were lot of obstacles in front of me when I tried to activate and use the Unlimited GPRS plan.

First problem was in downloading Internet settings to my phone. For downloading the setting phone make and model number should be sent via SMS but the supernova part prevented accepting my phone's model no.

Then I checked internet to find a way. It was revealed although my phone is called 7210 supernova its actual model no is 7210c.

I tried sending SMS with this newly found number, oops again failed. System is still not accepting the number.

I tried all the possible combinations with the number but with no luck.
I tried to call the customer care they told me that they will send the setting manually but I received none.

One week passed by without having any improvement.
I was almost lost but then idea struck me.

Can I use settings sent to a phone with same software??

I checked my software version. It was Symbian 40 edition 5. I looked up in the Internet and found some models with this same version but has no attachments to its model number.
The phone selected was 6301 I tried sending this number voila...... success and at last there were some working settings were in my phone.

But the problem didn't end there.

I was unable to connect to net using any software other than phone's own poor HTML browser. this browser returned memory full errors when I had 14 MB phone memory free.
Again I contacted the BSNL customer care they said I have to manually enter gprssouth.cellone.in as access point if I want to connect to internet using other software or PC
I tried that also again failed.....'
I was frustrated using the poor inbuilt browser of my phone.
Then I found another useful article here

'Subscribe to Packet Data' error

This article gave something for me to work on..
At last I succeeded and these were the steps

I created an access point manually and named it GPRS South these were the settings in that access point.

data bearer: Packet data
Bearer settings
Packet Data Access Point: bsnlnet
Network Type : IpV4
Authentication: Normal
Username and password were my phone number without any +91

This access point was set as my preferred access point
Then I edited the active accesspoints name from Access Point 1 to bsnlnet

When other programs in my phone also was able to connect to internet, My Ubuntu Magically detected the mobile broadband network available and connected to it.

My BSNL GPRS connection appears to be a good one as it gives me connection speeds upto 200 kbps which is 4 times faster than Dial up connections and only slightly lower than my previous broadband connection.

I feel that BSNL GPRS as a must consider option against the costly 3G , If you are using net for only browsing and downloading files in the range upto 100mb.