Oops...
When I get more ambitious (and somebody hassles me about not writing this page :) ) I'll put something here.
This should be a description of how to use the shell account to give you some of the benefit of a fast internet connection. A shell account could be useful for modem users, for example, if they want to download a file from a fast host that will be going offline soon. The file will be stored in your home directory, and you can come back later and download it to your own machine at your leisure.
If you're really in the mood for pain, you can use VNC to get a remote desktop session and use Netscape from my machine. Pages and files would load very quickly, but would be displayed on your screen very slowly. Not meant for casual browsing. :)