We don't use the old phone stuff at all. Mr. BetaRose is the technogeek, so he would know more details than I, but I can tell you what I know. We have 2 phones, and both run on the packet 8. Neither are plugged into the regular phone jacks. There is a little box that runs them that sits on his desk in the computer room, and I think its plugged into the router. Any more details than that I'll have to wait until he gets off work and ask him about them.