Send email to listserv@mail.w3.org
(preferred) or to
listserv@info.cern.ch
(older address if the first fails)
containing the following single line. (What you put on the subject line
doesn't matter; blank is OK. This line should go in the text
of the message.) You will receive as a reply a simple page intended
to help you learn more about the Web.
send http://www.earn.net/gnrt/www.html
There's an even lower-tech solution, though I recommend the email-based approach above: 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.