Frequently Asked Questions

Goldfish.ie is an Irish-owned cloud-based telecoms company, providing VoIP services to businesses across Ireland and abroad. Customers include large blue-chip companies, such as Dropbox, IDG Direct and the Sisk Group, to SMEs and start-ups such as Boxever.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and lets you make and receive calls through an existing Internet connection, rather than the traditional copper wires of the PSTN. It achieves this by converting the voice signal from an ordinary phone into a digital signal, which travels over the Internet, and then converts it back.

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and refers to the network protocol which can be used to establish telecommunication connections between two or more callers. This network protocol is commonly used in VoIP telephony.

Generally speaking, call quality is just as good or even better than traditional landlines. The audio quality is determined by the amount of bandwidth your Internet connection has as well as the quality of hardware you are using.

Very easily. You’re able to upgrade your call plans and incoming lines through your control panel or with the help of our support team.

You can sign up online to a VoIP number and have it operational within minutes. You can also add call plans, extra features and more through the signup process.

We don’t operate a trial service; our most basic package gives you a single number for €5 per month, with free cancellation at any time.

There is no minimum contract length. We offer free cancellation and you can cancel at any time from within your online control panel.

If you’ve forgotten your password, you can easily reset this using your login email address. If you don’t know the email address you use to login, you can contact our support team who will be able to assist you.

We issue a full breakdown of all calls and the price of each call from within your account. Go to Invoices > Billing – Calls & Faxes and you’ll see a monthly list of calls made and received through your account. If you feel there is an error, contact our support team and they’ll be able to assist you.

Once logged into your account, go to Your Profile and you’ll be able to change your account details.

You can cancel your services at any time from within your account in the Cancel a Service section. Select the items you wish to cancel and then click on Cancel. We will send a confirmation email to the associated email address for the account containing a link you need to click on. This will fully cancel the service. Please note that if this last step is not done, the items will remain on the account and you will still be charged going forward.

You can upgrade your call plan from within your online control panel by going to Your Numbers where you can upgrade to one of our existing call plans. If you can’t find a call plan for you, contact our Sales team who’ll be able to assist you.

You’ll see an option on your online control panel for Direct Debit; here you can set up a new Direct Debit where you will be invoiced depending on what date your billing date falls on.

If you do not have an existing call plan on your account, you will need to add call credit in order to make outbound calls to chargeable destinations.

Unfortunately we only accept payment via Credit/Debit Card or Direct Debit.

Once you’ve uploaded your audio file, you can assign it as hold music by ticking the Use this file for music on hold checkbox in the Audio File Details section.

We support .mp3 and .wav file formats. If your audio file is of a different format you will need to convert this before uploading it to your account.

Go to My Audio Files from your online control panel and there will be an option to Upload a New File.

You need to have the permission of the copyright holder in order to use 3rd party or well-known popular songs for your hold music. Alternatively, you can use royalty-free music.

Call Director allows you to create professional, multi-level menus which present your business in a much better and highly professional image. Check out our full guide.

Yes, you can order our professional recording artist to record a message unique for your business from within your online control panel.

Yes, you can record and upload your own recordings and use these as prompts when setting up your IVR menus.

Yes, you can configure as many menus and submenus as you like by subscribing to Call Director.

You can add Call Recording at any time from your online control panel. Go to Call Recording and then click on Subscribe to Call Recording.

Yes. It is legal to record a phone call, provided you then don’t breach any laws relating to privacy, harassment or extortion with the recording. We do recommend adding an audio file at the beginning of each call to alert callers that calls are recorded.

Yes, you can download and listen to your call recordings at any time from the Call Recording section in your online control panel.

Yes, you have options to only record inbound or outbound calls as well as certain numbers or extensions in your account.

Different handsets offer different ways to transfer calls, but generally speaking they will have a transfer button which you can press and then enter the number you wish to transfer the call to. For more specific guidance, check the instruction manual for the handset or contact our experienced support team for more assistance.

We recommend enabling call forwarding from your online account instead of directly on your handset as this could lead to issues with the call forwarding. Enabling call forwarding from your account allows you to manage this from anywhere with an Internet connection, giving you more flexibility.

Yes, provided it is with a compatible handset to our VoIP platform.

While you can use a VoIP adapter to connect to an analogue phone, you’ll get the best out of the service by using a fully equipped VoIP handset.

SIP ALG stands for Session Initiation Protocol Application Layer Gateway and is a setting you can find on most routers that can affect SIP packets that pass through the network. This can have an adverse effect, causing issues such as ghost calls, one-way audio or call connection issues. It’s recommended to turn this setting off.

If your VoIP device is not connected to the Internet, it will not be able to receive calls, but you can choose to forward calls to an external number in the meantime, ensuring you can continue to take calls. You can do this from your online control panel. If you have a widespread issue and cannot access the Internet at all, contact our support team and they’ll be able to assist.

Each router will have a different method to accessing SIP ALG settings. Some will have a designated setting in your router control panel whereas others you will need to Telnet in. On rare occasions, the router will not give you the option of turning SIP ALG off at all, in which case you would need to replace the router with one that does.

There are numerous reasons why this could be happening. It could be an issue with your broadband, the VoIP device you’re using or with your account configuration. If you’re still unsure, feel free to contact our support team and we’ll do our best to investigate what the issue is.

Yes, the most common cause of call audio quality issues is the quality and capacity of the Internet connection. The first port of call would be to check your Internet connection using a speed test. You can also reboot the router as this commonly resolves some issues. If your tests come back ok or you need any other advice, we can run a trace on your Internet connection to discover what the issue could be.

You need a minimum of 150kbps (that’s 0.15 Mbps) up and down for a single VoIP phone and an additional 120kbps (0.12 Mbps) for each additional phone you have.

You shouldn’t need to unless you have previously changed the default firewall settings to a more specific configuration (such as in a managed office environment). With few exceptions, VoIP traffic works fine with default firewall settings.

Each plan differs in the type of partnership as well as the benefits you can gain. Our Affiliate Programme offers a basic return for referring business to us. Our Associate Programme goes one step further by offering a percentage of any contract signed by referred business. Finally, the Value-Add Partnership you’ll have the option of adding your own margin and any additional services for new customers, in addition to us referring business back to you.

We offer three reseller plans; our Affiliate Programme, our Associate Programme and our Value-Add Partner Programme.

Payments are made on the receipt of a VAT invoice for affiliate business or from the moment a contract is signed with a business you refer to us.

This option is only available to Value-Add Partnership members.

You have many options to choose from, such as forwarding the call to an external number, send the call to your IP phones, directing the call to voicemail, etc. These are all available to you from within the Routing Wizard.

Usually, this is down to an issue where you are sending the call. For example, if you are sending the call to an external mobile, check to make sure the mobile can receive calls. Also, make sure you have enough call credit or a call plan if you are intending on forwarding calls.

The Routing Wizard is where you can set the routing for your number. You set up each step one after the other (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3… ) before deciding how to end the call, be it by sending the call to voicemail or hanging up. A full guide can be found here.

Yes, you can set a different routing plan for Out of Hours from your online control panel.

Yes, be sure to set step one in the Routing Wizard to Play a Message to the Caller and then select the audio file you want to play at the beginning of the call.

Yes, you can do this by using the Routing Wizard and selecting the option Send the call to one or more internal/external destinations. Enter the external number where you want forward to. Note that in order to send the call to an external destination, you will need call credit or a valid call plan for this to work.

A softphone is a piece of software (often free) that can be installed on a computer, giving you the ability to make and receive calls through a connected headset. These can often be more useful as they offer a sense of flexibility over hardware phones.

Yes! All Goldfish.ie customer have access to our own custom designed softphone. Babelphone is our browser-based VoIP softphone. No download or installation is required, all you need is the URL and your SIP ID and Password.

With a few exceptions, you can use any 3rd party softphones with our service. If you have any issues configuring them, contact our support team who will lend a helping hand.

You can choose to add an audio file to your online control panel and then set this in the routing, or alternatively you can dial 8000 from your VoIP device and then choose option 0 followed by option 4 (record your unavailable message). You should then be prompted to re-record your greeting.

All your messages are accessible via your online control panel. Alternatively, you can access your voicemail from a connected VoIP device by dialling 8000. This will take you to the main voicemail menu. Select option 1 to listen to new messages.

No, our voicemail boxes are set up straight away after you have purchased a number with us. However we recommend you set a custom greeting as our default option is a one-size-fits-all greeting which you will likely want to change.

Each VoIP number comes with it’s own mailbox, so if you need more mailboxes you would need to subscribe to extra VoIP numbers.

Dial by URL is a feature that allows you to initiate a call simply by clicking a specially formatted hyperlink on a web-browser, CRM system or other computer-based links. It does this by means of a specially formatted hyperlink which we provide to you in order to make an outbound call. See Dial by URL for more information.

Calls to standard Irish landlines and mobiles during peak hours are 1.8 cent and 14.5 cent respectively, and off-peak they are 1 cent and 10 cent respectively. You can see a full list of our call charges here.

Yes, you can input numbers to be blocked from within your online control panel under the Inbound Call Filtering section.

It’s likely an issue with the configuration of the phone or with the SIP ALG setting on your router. Contact our support team and they’ll be able to investigate this for you.

Technically you get unlimited lines with each number you subscribe to, meaning we will not limit you to one or two simultaneous calls. If you receive twenty calls all at once and you have the VoIP device capable of supporting that amount of incoming calls, then they shall all ring on your device.

You can change what number you present on outbound calls from within your control panel, so long as it is a number you currently own or have permission to use.

No, you can operate our service by simply adding call credit to your account. However to get the most out of the service, adding a call plan is preferable.

Yes, as our service is cloud-based, you can be anywhere in the world with an Internet connection and receive calls for free.

Yes, these are charged at a more premium rate, see our call charges page for more info.

Yes, these are charged at a more premium rate, see our call charges page for more info.

Yes, any call to another Goldfish.ie number is free.

If you miss a payment, we shall notify you immediately and suspend the numbers in your account from further use. Once the payment has been cleared, the numbers will become active again. Should we not receive payment in due course (usually a month or two), the number would eventually be cancelled and we cannot guarantee that we can regain it for you.

Call Whisper is a recording that is played to you when receiving an incoming call. This is useful if you are operating multiple businesses and need to know what number the call came on.

You will need to configure the phone manually as we do not offer a provisioning service. This is relatively straight forward using our Help Guides, or if you do get stuck, our support team can put you on the right path.

It’s €5 to port a number to us from another provider.

Once we have verified the porting forms that we send to you and take payment, the port can be undertaken very quickly, usually on the same working day. We will ensure there is little to no gap in your service.

Depends on the phone! See here for our Help Guides for phone setups.

To begin the process all you need to do is download a copy of our porting form from our website, print it off and complete it before sending it back to us at support@goldfish.ie. We’ll also need a copy of your existing landline phone bill. Once we have received these, you’ll be issued with a one-off €5 porting fee in your account. Once we receive payment, the port shall go ahead, usually taking no more than 48 hours.