It is always best to run a browser on your own machine, unless you absolutely cannot do so; but feel free to telnet to a browser for your first look at the web, or use email if the telnet command does not work on your system (try it first!). Note that "your machine" can be defined as a system you dial into from home, such as netcom or another account provider. Running a text-based browser on such a system is still preferable to telnetting to a faraway site.
Access to the web by email is possible once again, but obtaining a better grade of Internet access that allows you to run a web browser is strongly encouraged. To use the service, send mail to webmail@curia.ucc.ie with "go http://www.boutell.com/faq/" in the body of your mail (don't type the quotation marks). You will receive the top page of the web version of this FAQ, which you can use as a starting point for your explorations.
There is one low-tech solution: web by FAX! Consider the following information, submitted by Bill Stearns:
If you have access to a fax machine, do the following:
1) Call 805-730-7777 from your fax machine.
2) Select number 2 (I have the document ID already)
3) Type in the document ID; for the above page, it's 17571, then press # (the pound symbol)
4) Press pound at the next prompt if you're calling from your fax machine, or enter the phone number of your fax machine and then press pound.
5) Wait for that page to come over, and then repeat the process with the 5 or 6 digit number in brackets next to the link you'd like to follow.
A few other useful pages:
17581 800 number (toll-free) service providers
17582 The list of area codes - a good place to start as well if you're in the U.S.
By the way, this free service is provided by Universal Access (http://www.ua.com/, document number 16968) and is not limited to just this directory. If you know the name of the machine hosting the web page you want to view, you can probably reach it through this service. You simply type in the name of the machine (www.teleport.com, for example) at menu option 3. When you've received the home page for the site, keep following the trail to the page you'd like. It takes a while and some long distance calls, but the service is otherwise free.
My sincere thanks both to Universal Access and the Celestin company for providing these services.