Making an international phone call, for those of us who just don't need to do it very often, can seem like a daunting task. After all, calling from one city in the United States to another never means dialing more than 11 digits: 1, the area code, and the phone number. But making a call to London or Paris or Istanbul means dialing a sometimes perplexing combination of codes followed by a phone number that isn't necessarily seven digits.

Dialing an international call really isn't that complicated. Most of the time, anyway. For direct-dialing -- that is, calling without an operator's assistance, most international calls start by dialing the digits "011". If you need to use an operator -- which is generally more expensive but sometimes necessary -- start with "01" instead.

Next, you must dial the country code for the country you're dialing. Next comes the city code, which you'll also need to know before you start to dial. Where do you find the country and city codes? You can look them up in the front of your phone book or online. The web site www.HowToCall.info will quickly tell you the country codes for more than 200 countries.

Finally, dial the phone number. It won't necessarily be seven digits: other countries have phone numbers from four to nine digits.

Here's a little-known tip: when you are finished dialing, press the * key. Depending on your telephone company, this can significantly speed up the process of connecting your international call. Why? There are so many possible combinations of country and city codes that the routing computer will usually wait a few extra moments before connecting your call, to make sure you're really done dialing. Pressing the * key tells it "I'm done dialing, connect me now." (If your phone company doesn't support this feature, pressing the * after the number won't hurt.)

Have patience when dialing internationally: connecting the call can take longer than you're used to for domestic calls. Also, it's smart to know the time difference between your location and where you're calling before you dial. You probably don't want to wake up your friends or business associates for a chat at 4AM.

If you don't have access to the Internet or a phone book to look up the country or city codes, or you are having some other problem placing your overseas call, help is available: hang up and dial "00" for the international operator.