I don't think 286s had a built-in coprocessor. With the 386, you could get one with (a 386DX), or without (a 386SX). From what I understand, they were exactly the same chips. They were having QA problems and the coproccessors on a lot of them were failing, so they would disable it, and sell it as an SX.
Lots of Freepers remember the internet in its early days. For myself, I recall gopher sites, and the archie, jughead, and veronica search engines.
Thanks. I remember the bulletin boards. I also remember a short-lived browser called “Cello”. I remember being a beta-tester for different servers. I remember hearing about Archie and Veronica but never used them. Way early on there was something having to do with “coke machine”, but in those days the computers communicating with each other were mainly used in college computer labs.