Comcast cable is broadband. The cable modem's connection to the PC is Ethernet. What they are trying to tell you is that you need a high speed connection - broadband. And that it won't work with a USB connection. Your modem may have a USB to PC connection in place of the Ethernet connection. But if You're using the 8 pin (RJ-45) phone-like (RJ-11) connection, you're set.
The router is needed to split the connection for the voice to work. A router splits the cable connection and distributes it to several PCs. Vonnage will split the voice from the PC. I guess. I've never considered the VoIP (Voice over IP) setup. Unless Vonage provides a router you'll need to get one. You'll have to talk to them for the specifics.
VoIP is getting a lot of press lately, and it may be ok for some people. Consider this. If you have a power failure can you use your PC? Nope. What if you are using VoIP? Power failure - no phone.
Have you ever lost your regular phone in a power failure? Nope. In an emergency, this would scare me.
Wayne
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I am considering signing up for Vonage, which provides phone service through broadband.
One thing I am looking for are any comments that those familiar with Vonage might have that they think would be useful to me.
Also, Vonage requires an ethernet connection. I don't even know what that is. I have broadband through Comcast. Some language on the Vonage website suggests that if I have broadband I already have an ethernet connection. I would like to know if this is the case, and, if not, what I do to get an ethernet connection.
The Vonage Website says that I need to have router capabilities. I assume from some of the language, but will find out for sure, that the phone adaptor that Vonage supplies for free has router capabilities but I would like to know what a router is, and, if I were to need to provide a router something about how that works; is it just a piece of equipment that I plug in to something or other, or what?
Vonage says I can cancel within 30 days and get all my money back, so I'm not taking much risk in trying it out (unless, like often happens) there are bugs in the guarantee that I don't learn about till later). I have review the guarantee and did not detect any bugs.
Nonetheless, I'd like to be better informed than I now am and that is why I am making these inquiries.
Thanks, grandpaw

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