tiggapooh

Can some one please tell me how voip works. Do you have to have special equipment or what? Or is it the software? I'm visulalizing all these voices coming at me all at one time. Is it going to cost the average person a lot of money to do something like this? Will my voice actually be heard on someone else's computer? I know I am asking a lot of questions but I am so curious about this. I am one of these people who loves to learn new things about technology but doesn't always have the time to do a lot of research. I would appreciate if someone would answer me back
Thanks,
Tiggapooh