How to archive/download forums to computer for offline access
 

How would one be able to do this? I know there is a mod, but is there any other way to do this without a mod?

Are we talking about a complete copy of the forums which you can access offline?
The only way to do this is by running a local webserver with a vBulletin installation and a copy of your database.

I don't know of a mod to do this. You basically follow the steps to set up a test site only you create the test site on your localhost (assuming you are the one that wants offline access). You will need to have apache, php, and mysql installed and running on your computer in order to do this though.

Well I'm wanting to pretty much download a forum I'm on since there is talks of shutting down. Just like individual forum sections.

If it's not yours you wont be able to download it, if it is yours downloading seperate sections as a usable forum wont be possible, you'll need to download the entire forum, run it on your localhost as Lynne says and then delete what you dont want.

If you just want the databse for those forums then install Paul M's database backup mod, choose to back up tables individually then once backed up download the database to your pc.