Currently, at Lehman, many computers have direct connections: in
our departmental labs, in the ACC, in the Library. Soon, all computers
on the campus will have these connections to our fiber-optics backbone.
If you have a computer at home, you should have a phone and get a modem. Currently about $100.
Then you have two options:
1) The free version: ask one of your instructors to get you an account
on the Lehman Alpha. This account is free. It will let you
do e-mail, and it will let you use the WWW -- but with a text-based browser
only.
2) The version that will currently cost you about $20 per month:
Find an Internet Service Provider that gives you unlimited hours of connection
time and has a local access number so that you only pay for a local telephone
call whenever you connect to the Internet. This is called dialing
up or logging on.
See the list of Internet Service Providers.