How Did People "browse" The Internet Before Browsers Existed?

[The Simpleton 2]

I got this doubt based on a reply by truefusion in my previous thread; I'm only starting a new thread so as to not divert that topic.Internet Browsers came into existence only in the 90's, right? But the internet existed before that period, and if I'm not wrong, the first domain name was registered in the year 1985 or somewhere around that. So how exactly did people browse the net then? Of course, the "people" who used it were limited, but still there were someone!

[kleong 0]

Command prompts? Like what you do when you telnet into a server and open a file?

[The Simpleton 2]

Those days might have been really fun! A little irritating but still it must have been exciting to get to know the "latest" technology of the time, isn't it?!

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

And also keep in mind that back then you didn't have websites loaded with flash and javascript, so you didn't need a powerful browser to browse the web. Now you have videos, music,. and tons of other things that require a "more advanced" browser to work.

[rob86 2]

I don't really remember the internet before browsers. I remember my first experience with the internet though. Slow computer, insanely slow internet (I was still using the old 2400 baud modem from my other post). It was incredibly boring as well. Aside from the fact it took literally 15 minutes to load a text webpage, there was no google to browse and you couldn't just make up links, you had to have a list of them. After a while, the Internet got a bit more interesting, I bought a young persons book called like, Guide to the Internet or something. It had a bunch of links to check out, like sites with simple games and E-Pal penpal websites where you could put your name and email on a site and hope someone emailed you. It was at that stage when the Internet was becoming something interesting. There wasn't nearly the selection of webpages there are today, and to find something as exciting as "Watch the fabulous sleeping rat cam' was about coolest thing going on that I could find, and at the time, it was thrilling to watch

[manish-mohania 0]

Command prompts? Like what you do when you telnet into a server and open a file?

He he .. adventurous ...

If you want to feel, what the ancient times look like, check out text browsers : lynx, w3m