i think what you are referring to as the "base of the phone" is the answering machine that is built into the telephone... this is different than voice mail, which is a feature that is provided by your telephone company... you can use either the answering machine built into your phone, or the voice mail provided by your telephone company - but not both at the same time
to recieve the messages on your answering machine and not the voice mail you would need to turn your answering machine on, and set the number of rings to less than the amount of rings it takes your voice mail to answer the call...
to review any voice mail that you might have on your line check with your telephone service provider, but normally you can just dial your home phone number (even from your home phone) and press * or # then enter your pin code to play back your messages...
to recieve the messages on your answering machine and not the voice mail you would need to turn your answering machine on, and set the number of rings to less than the amount of rings it takes your voice mail to answer the call...
to review any voice mail that you might have on your line check with your telephone service provider, but normally you can just dial your home phone number (even from your home phone) and press * or # then enter your pin code to play back your messages...