Horny? Dreaming of an erotic encounter?Ready to check out some skin?Well, get your credit card ready, because if you're headed toward the Internet, you're going to need it.The days of free raunchy Net sex are (nearly) over. Thanks in part to last year's telecommunications bill, you now need a credit card in order to either become a member of a particular cybersex site -Ñ say www.do_me.com -Ñ or to register in a Net-wide age check system such as Adult Check.But, you protest, my credit card's nearly maxed out and/or I don't want to pay $20 per site per year to peruse the cybersex site of my choice.Well, there are options.First of all, dump that alt.sex site from your bookmark folder. The alt.sex newsgroup directory is little more than cash cow these days. Gone are the days when you could find deep, meaningful discussion on your own personal fetish or desire such as tickling, spanking, oral sex or masturbation. Instead, these sites read more like a sleazy classified index of pay-per-view Web sites. A posting headed "My girlfriend and I like to take showers together and we want you to watch" is quickly revealed to be just a pointer to the www.hotsex.site. That'll be $19.95, plus your Adult Check PIN number, please.If you're willing to sacrifice memory-hungry jpg files of busty silicone blondes, however, it is possible to find free eroticism and sex on the Internet.One of the best all-around directory for such sites is the Society for Human Sexuality's World Wide Web Links page (weber.u.washington.edu/~sfpse/links.html). Here you'll find a plethora of sites where you can explore both your impulses and sex education needs. Some of the sites indexed include the Queer Resources Directory, the Radical Sex Page, National Leather Association, Kink Aware Professionals, the Safer Sex Page and Planned Parenthood. Plus, there's a great library where you can download histories and how-tos on just about every subject imaginable.Or use a search engine to find links. Yahoo Sex Index (www.yahoo.com/society_and_culture/sexuality) will sort your sex links by category: education, erotica, culture, etc. The fetish link page is particularly fun. Yahoo's description for Ass.net reads "yes, you too can put your ass up on the Net for everybody to see!"If getting tied up is your thing, the AltSex (www.altsex.com) page is a good place to test the waters. Along with discussions and information on the usual S/M stuff, you learn the subtle differences between B&D (bondage and discipline) and D/S (dominance and submission). If you're not in the mood or don't have the time to hop around all over the Web, there are a couple of high-quality, comprehensive sites where you're invited to take it all off, get comfortable and stay for awhile.Plus it's got the great Countessa Noire column, where the mistress of the night answers all your questions on masturbation, bi-curiosity, writing a personal ad and seduction.Wanna just get footloose and fancy free? Set your browser to Bianca's Smut Shack (bianca.com.shack/index.htiml). On Bianca's homepage, you'll find a map to Bianca's house of happiness. Choose from the bedroom, bathroom, library, closet, parlor, kitchen, et al., then get ready for a libidinous tour of Bianca's erotically charged fantasies. At first it seems a bit tame, what with the advice on how to grow and tend to flowers and an image-free sex toy guide, but keep on peeking through various doors and eventually you'll find all the nooks and crannies that makes this cozy cabana one of the Web's most popular and critically acclaimed sex sites.Bianca's kitchen, with its recipe message board, is particularly lusty. In addition to recipes for Easy Noodles and Kooky Cajun Pasta, you'll find carefully detailed instructions on how to whip up some Creamy Chicken Breasts and Better Than Sex Cake, plus a list of top 10 foods for instant erection. Bianca also offers live chats, a basement filled with "underground" sex interest forums and discussions on really taboo stuff like menstruation and bowel movements.Annie Sprinkle's Homepage (www.infi.net/~heck/sprinkleshow.html) is another good, all-around sex site. Porn star/performance artist/sex teacher Annie Sprinkle offers a no-holds-barred approach to Web libido.Want to see a picture of a cervix up close? Think it's time to learn how to have an Energy Orgasm? How about 41 new uses for sex? Or maybe 40 reasons "why whores are my heroes"? Annie can give you all that and more. Download images of her postmodern pin-ups, featuring Susie Bright, Lily Burana and Katherine Gates, and you might never feel the need to gaze upon the likes of Christy Canyon again.If you're looking for something a bit more clinical, then the Microsoft Network's Sexuality Bytes (www.sexualitybytes.com) page isn't bad, despite its corporate affiliation. Divided into two sites: adult and teen, Sexuality Bytes is an online encyclopedia of sex and sexual health with topics ranging from foreplay and sexual positions to contraception and STDs.And if the Web's too treacherous for you? Just stick with AOL. Check out any of the chat rooms (you don't even need to bother searching for the "horny couples want you to watch" rooms) and you'll have more free pix and dirty talk than you can handle in no time. At $19.95, a month it's the cheapest and easiest way to get off, provided you can sign on in the first place.