You don't need an internet connection to boot the installation floppies. The FreeBSD handbook
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...stall-pre.html Section
2.3.7 Prepare the Boot Media describes the steps for a floppy boot.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...all-start.html has a screenshot of the messages you should see when the floppy is booting.
Please note that these are for FreeBSD 7.0, which is the latest production release.
An alternative would be to get the CD/DVD drive on your Compaq working as a boot device. Then you could create a FreeBSD installation CD and boot from it.