I did get Beetel 450 TC1 ADSL2+ router for use with Beam, albeit with a subtle limitation (alas, why didn't I care to chose a router with both ADSL2+ modem and a WAN port)
Normally, this router does not have a WAN port, so you can't use it with Beam, that provides an ethernet port at home.
However, there is a workaround (based on japinder's post above and other internet forum's posts including How to Configure beetel wifi(ADSL2+Router) to use tikona(wiMax) | Nitin Kumar's Blog ) through which you can connect wirelessly -- but this works for only one user (only one user can connect to the internet at a time), but there is a probable workaround even for that, listed at the end.
I have tried many things for over a day, but I will summarize what would have contributed for the final effect: (Step 2 may not be necessary and I guess it should work even without resetting)
1. Connect beam directly to your computer and note down the DHCP server ip address
2. Reset the router settings to factory settings (Maintenance->SysRestart or the reset button on the back -- I did both!)
3. Change Interface Setup -> Internet -> Encapsulation -> ISP to Bridge Mode.
4. My router's local ip is already set to 192.168.1.1 and I haven't changed that (Interface Setup->LAN)
5. Change DHCP mode from enabled to Relay (Interface Setup->LAN) and specify the DHCP server IP for relay agent as the ip address saved in Step 1.
6. Nothing to change or configure on the computer side (keep them as if beam is directly connected; by default, the settings would be to use dhcp and get ip/dns server address automatically)
7. Connect to your wifi router from your computer over WiFi and you can browser now.
As I said earlier, only one machine can connect to the internet. You can try connecting multiple connections, there is no harm. But beam's login screen will appear on each of the machines you connect and beam would not allow multiple simultaneous connections for a single login.
For those who want to know what is really happening under the hood: A router supporting WAN port would normally be used for this kind of purpose and would not have the single user limitation. All the outgoing packets in that case would have the router's ip address. So, even when multiple machines connect to the wireless router, it works fine. However, what we did above is we are using the switch (LAN) functionality of the router here and the router as well as your machine gets a dynamic ip address from the ISP's dhcp server and are as if all of them are on same LAN. Here, there is no private ip assigned and hence all the outgoing packets will see ip address/mac addresss of your machine, but not that of the wireless router/switch (which would just act as a switch and forwards the packets to ISP).
Probable workarounds for single user restriction: (I haven't tried these now, as I don't have another machine)
1. You may try making your computer as a wireless hotspot or a wireless adhoc (computer to computer) network in Windows. I had tried it with BSNL data card some time back.
EVDO Internet connection sharing with a (wireless) router
use of evdo dongal in home wifi network
2. Run a proxy server on your machine and let others use it. (Beware, everybody else running on beam may be able to use your proxy, so restrict the access to the extent possible; I think at least squid proxy allows such restrictions to be put in place, but it runs from command line and doesn't have UI!)
EVDO Internet connection sharing with a (wireless) router (search for sateesh or proxy)
-Sateesh
Normally, this router does not have a WAN port, so you can't use it with Beam, that provides an ethernet port at home.
However, there is a workaround (based on japinder's post above and other internet forum's posts including How to Configure beetel wifi(ADSL2+Router) to use tikona(wiMax) | Nitin Kumar's Blog ) through which you can connect wirelessly -- but this works for only one user (only one user can connect to the internet at a time), but there is a probable workaround even for that, listed at the end.
I have tried many things for over a day, but I will summarize what would have contributed for the final effect: (Step 2 may not be necessary and I guess it should work even without resetting)
1. Connect beam directly to your computer and note down the DHCP server ip address
2. Reset the router settings to factory settings (Maintenance->SysRestart or the reset button on the back -- I did both!)
3. Change Interface Setup -> Internet -> Encapsulation -> ISP to Bridge Mode.
4. My router's local ip is already set to 192.168.1.1 and I haven't changed that (Interface Setup->LAN)
5. Change DHCP mode from enabled to Relay (Interface Setup->LAN) and specify the DHCP server IP for relay agent as the ip address saved in Step 1.
6. Nothing to change or configure on the computer side (keep them as if beam is directly connected; by default, the settings would be to use dhcp and get ip/dns server address automatically)
7. Connect to your wifi router from your computer over WiFi and you can browser now.
As I said earlier, only one machine can connect to the internet. You can try connecting multiple connections, there is no harm. But beam's login screen will appear on each of the machines you connect and beam would not allow multiple simultaneous connections for a single login.
For those who want to know what is really happening under the hood: A router supporting WAN port would normally be used for this kind of purpose and would not have the single user limitation. All the outgoing packets in that case would have the router's ip address. So, even when multiple machines connect to the wireless router, it works fine. However, what we did above is we are using the switch (LAN) functionality of the router here and the router as well as your machine gets a dynamic ip address from the ISP's dhcp server and are as if all of them are on same LAN. Here, there is no private ip assigned and hence all the outgoing packets will see ip address/mac addresss of your machine, but not that of the wireless router/switch (which would just act as a switch and forwards the packets to ISP).
Probable workarounds for single user restriction: (I haven't tried these now, as I don't have another machine)
1. You may try making your computer as a wireless hotspot or a wireless adhoc (computer to computer) network in Windows. I had tried it with BSNL data card some time back.
EVDO Internet connection sharing with a (wireless) router
use of evdo dongal in home wifi network
2. Run a proxy server on your machine and let others use it. (Beware, everybody else running on beam may be able to use your proxy, so restrict the access to the extent possible; I think at least squid proxy allows such restrictions to be put in place, but it runs from command line and doesn't have UI!)
EVDO Internet connection sharing with a (wireless) router (search for sateesh or proxy)
-Sateesh
