Early 1990's on a green screen terminal
Using net news, archie and gopher. I was a university undergraduate, and at the time everyone who wanted access had to make their case - in writing - to their head of department, to explain how it would benefit their education.
A couple of years later the university opened up access and installed a web browser (Mosaic, I think) on a room full of X-terms. I remember the first URL I typed in - someone had written on the whiteboard at the front of the room:
'Start Here - http://www.stanford.edu/~jwang/yahoo'