Many X.500 services are available both on the Internet, and by electronic mail. See the section Using X.500 below for details. Each type of access is described below in the Using X.500 section. In addition, network tools such as WWW and Gopher provide access to X.500 directory services through gateways. Public access to an X.500 client via Telnet or X.25 is an easy way to start querying the X.500 directory.
Most remote clients use the national language, with the facility of switching into English.
Public domain and commercial DUAs are available for numerous platforms ranging from mainframes to personal computers. They range from simple command-line based clients to clients based on sophisticated graphical user interfaces which require a pointing device. The capabilities of these DUAs range from basic search facilities to full X.500 functionality. The X-Windows based DUAs require a local setup. Users who are new to querying the X.500 directory should use de's Simple query mode .