When you think about it, in any phone call, only one party has to pay the bill. That means routing the call through the Internet only benefits the caller -- the person who would normally foot the bill. In recent months, a number of companies have come up with services that route long distance calls through the Internet to regular telephones. In other words, you can call any regular phone number from your computer. Unfortunately, while these services are generally cheaper than regular long-distance, they're not free -- that is, until now.

How about a free Internet phone service that operates from your Web browser and lets you call any phone number on the planet without charge? That's what the folks at dialpad.com (www.dialpad.com) claim so I thought I'd try it for myself.

Of course, as with almost all free Internet stuff, there's the usual advertising and marketing catch. As part of the signup process, you have to answer fairly extensive demographic questions. Then, when you're using the free browser plug-in to make your calls, you see the standard barrage of banner advertisements.

Using dialpad couldn't be easier, though. The browser plug-in launches as soon as you log in with your user name and password. You dial the number by clicking the on-screen numeric pad, including both the area code and phone number. Then click the Dial button and a few seconds later, the phone at the other end is ringing. You talk through your computer's microphone and listen on your computer's speakers, granted not very convenient but it is free.

By no means are you going to get the same sound quality as you do from a regular telephone (although a faster Internet connection would help things). The slightly robotic tone that gets added to voices makes it less than desirable for business calls. There's also a second or so delay as voices travel back and forth over the Internet.

One other word of warning: If you have your home computers networked together and they share an Internet connection using a program like WinGate or SyGate, you're likely to run into problems with dialpad. People you call will be able to hear you, but you may not be able to hear them. The problem is that the Internet-sharing software is confusing the voice packets coming back to your computer and they don't know where to go.




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