It's called the Magic Jack and once you buy it -- it's supposed to give you long distance calls for free.

But does it really work?

When he first heard about the Magic Jack, Ron Neufeglise thought their claims weren't believable at all. The ad says he could buy the unit for $56 and he could call long distance anywhere in North America and Hawaii -- for free. Imagine his surprise -- when it worked -- exactly as advertised.

"No extra charges. I have one year, all long distance. It was $56 for the first year and then after that it's $20 a year. That's about a dollar and a half a month for all my long distance calls and I can talk as long as I want.

Ron showed us how to set it up. It's amazingly simple. You take the Magic Jack then plug it into a USB port on your computer.

"You wait a few minutes because it searches the internet and gets it all set up for you," explains Ron.

And then take any phone -- even a cordless like Ron's -- and plug it into the Magic Jack that's about it.

Here's a funny wrinkle, the Magic Jack uses American phone numbers. Ron picked Berkeley California.

And that caused a little initial confusion for his friends and relatives.

"I called my sister the first time and she didn't answer the phone because she didn't recognize the area code and was concerned that it was a telemarketer calling," admits Ron.

Ron is finding he is saving money and that's good news for a viewer from Nanaimo named Joan who e-mailed wondering if Magic Jack really worked?

It does work. With this limitation, you can't get 911 service and you need a computer with windows XP or Vista or an Intel based Mac and a high speed internet connection

And what about the quality of the phone connection

"The quality of the call is actually quite excellent. Nobody knows I'm not talking on a regular phone. There is the occasional I guess break up once in a while I'm not sure why that is but that's acceptable to me if I can talk as long as I want on a long distance call."

Also it takes voice mail and sends it into your e-mail inbox -- so you don't even have to be by the phone to get a message.

Skeptical in the beginning Ron now says he's totally amazed.

"I just don't know how long this is going to last," he says.