Computers are expensive. The software that makes them do what they do is extortionate. And you're bound to pay a pretty penny for essentials like leather office furniture, etc., when you're outfitting your office. So once in a while it's nice to take advantage of the freebies that circulate on the web. The free stuff is called shareware, and it'll do anything from upgrade your Word program, to calculate complex accounting logarithms, to send a barking Mother's Day card to your mom back on the homestead.

All you have to do is click the "download" button, and, in some cases, fill in a registration form. You should also keep in mind that, while shareware is free, it does take up space on your hard drive. Keep an eye on the size of the files you're downloading, and your computer's capacity, to see that you don't overload things. The more features you add to your PC, the slower it will operate.

Here's a sampling of sites that offer free downloads and, more importantly, reviews of shareware products on the internet.

www.download.com

This is the mother of shareware sites. It features a diverse selection of free products, from MP3s to word processing upgrades to games to screensavers to database software. Its real appeal, though, has to be its voting system. No need to rely on possibly biased reviewers; each commentary is followed by a user-vote function, plus messages posted by users who either liked or disliked what they'd downloaded. So you can make up your own mind before clicking the conveniently-placed "download" button.

www.snapfiles.com

Windows PC users who seek free internet software should visit the shareware warehouse that is snapfiles.com. A huge range of products is reviewed in an easy-to-read style -- although users don't get a chance to vote on the performance of their downloads here. If you're looking to improve your PC's e-mail, search capabilities, browser tools, download tools, multimedia and more, this is the surest way to find out what your options are.