If you follow the link that I have provided, it will answer all of that for you. Like BH is saying, you do have to have some equipment, but that is usually given to you if (i.e. you high speed internet provider will include the modem with its service, a company like vonage may include the “phone box with theirs ( I think we had to pay something like $30-40 for ours). Oh, and you need a router—man, just let me stop with this ! Just follow the link and if you have any questions, come back here.

BH~

Maaaaaan, that is just one of the MANY reasons why I had to kick DSL to the curb a long time ago. I was talking to someone about this same thing who also had DSL, but saw the redundancy with paying the phone company and paying for vonage. I just told them to get the absolute cheapest plan their local phone company offers (maybe something like local calling only). That way you won’t feel the cost with still having to pay the phone company for access.

fyi– did you know you can route the vonage signal throughout the house? You can use the existing phone wiring that is in your house—oops! But I guess you can only do that with cable Internet.