Congstar - cheapest data prepaid in Germany?

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by Dm_

when you say "buy ordinary Ja!" SIM card - did you mean that it comes in a usual old fashion size (classics GSM) and i'll have to cut some plastic to get it fit to the unlocked (hopefully!) ex-O2-usb-modem?

No, those credit card-sized SIM cards ceased some 15 years ago. By "ordinary" I mean that there's no special SIM card for data usage - you just need to buy the regular "ja!" SIM and during activation you need to select the "data" tariff among the three variants ("partner", "easy", "data", ja! mobil).

[Dm_]

[ added ]

just checked my old records - my modem is ZTE (MF190)
no unlocking ... :weep:

[Dm_]

just to avoid confusion - Ja! activation and online access uses Congstar web-site, BUT in it's own area. Congstar prepaid user login/activation and Ja! are different

[Dm_]

wow. It's all working

details - good advise about changing browser (didn't work correctly with Chrome)

APN should be set to same value as for any t-mobile internet device internet.t-mobile
login and password fields to be left empty

modem unlocking works for tchibo modem

thank you very much!

[Dm_]

by the way - it looks like T-Mobile(congsar/Ja!) is blocking Skype.

Skype login is OK, chats are OK, but every time i start a conversation ... in 20-30 seconds half of frames are missing and we can not hear each other ...
Tried to take laptop far away from the building, tried some other places, parks, etc - same result. Even skype test doesn't work (same issues).

Playing with incomming port number (80/443) doesn't help...

Ehhhhhhh ....

[dg7feq]

In T-Mobile network VoIP usage is prohibited (if you dont buy a special VoIP package). I dont know if they scan the data and actively disturb the connection.

Quote: "VoIP, BlackBerry-Nutzung, Peer-to-Peer, Instant Messaging sind nicht Gegenstand des Vertrages." - Voip, ...., are not part of the contract

[inquisitor]

T-Mobile and Vodafone both block Skype and other VoIP services by actively dropping or delaying packets. E-Plus and O2 both allow Skype and VoIP, however given E-Plus' frequent network congestions O2 (including Lidl and Fonic) is the only reliable option for mobile Skype and VoIP in Germany.

[dg7feq]

Regarding inquisitors post - you can sign up for a free account at sipgate.de, they deliver a free VPN tunnel app together with their service which will enable you to use VoIP also on T-Mobile/Vodafone. (sipgate team - Hilfe)

[Dm_]

sounds interesting ...
I'll post over here a result of trying it via VPN channel
Just need to go through sipgate.de terms, not sure why do they do it absolutely for free ... ??? what's the trick?

thanks, guys, your assistance is much appreciated!

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Dm_

sounds interesting ...
I'll post over here a result of trying it via VPN channel
Just need to go through sipgate.de terms, not sure why do they do it absolutely for free ... ??? what's the trick?

thanks, guys, your assistance is much appreciated!

yes, its absolutely free as long as you dont use outgoing calls. I use that for about 10 years already and is the most reliable VoIP service we have. They also have a UK branch www.sipgate.co.uk but on the UK website i didnt found the VPN stuff.

Chris