A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.

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BACKBONE: A backbone is a larger transmission line that carries data gathered from smaller lines that interconnect with it.
1) At the local level, a backbone is a line or set of lines that local area networks connect to for a wide area network connection or within a local area network to span distances efficiently (for example, between buildings).
2) On the Internet or other wide area network, a backbone is a set of paths that local or regional networks connect to for long-distance interconnection. The connection points are known as network nodes or telecommunication data switching exchanges (DSEs).

BANDWIDTH: The bandwidth of a transmitted communications signal is a measure of the range of frequencies the signal occupies. The term is also used in reference to the frequency-response characteristics of a communications receiving system. All transmitted signals, whether analog or digital, have a certain bandwidth. The same is true of receiving systems.
Generally speaking, bandwidth is directly proportional to the amount of data transmitted or received per unit time. In a qualitative sense, bandwidth is proportional to the complexity of the data for a given level of system performance. For example, it takes more bandwidth to download a photograph in one second than it takes to download a page of text in one second. Large sound files, computer programs, and animated videos require still more bandwidth for acceptable system performance. Virtual reality (VR) and full-length three-dimensional audio/visual presentations require the most bandwidth of all.
In digital systems, bandwidth is data speed in bits per second (bps). Thus, a modem that works at 57,600 bps has twice the bandwidth of a modem that works at 28,800 bps. In analog systems, bandwidth is defined in terms of the difference between the highest-frequency signal component and the lowest-frequency signal component. Frequency is measured in cycles per second (hertz). A typical voice signal has a bandwidth of approximately three kilohertz (3 kHz); an analog television (TV) broadcast video signal has a bandwidth of six megahertz (6 MHz) -- some 2,000 times as wide as the voice signal.

BAUD: Baud was the prevalent measure for data transmission speed until replaced by a more accurate term, bps (bits per second). One baud is one electronic state change per second. Since a single state change can involve more than a single bit of data, the bps unit of measurement has replaced it as a better expression of data transmission speed.
The measure was named after a French engineer, Jean-Maurice-Emile Baudot. It was first used to measure the speed of telegraph transmissions.

BBS: A BBS (bulletin board system) is a computer that can be reached by computer modem dialling (and, in some cases, by Telnet) for the purpose of sharing or exchanging messages or other files. Some BBSs are devoted to specific interests; others offer a more general service. The definitive BBS List says that there are 40,000 BBSs world-wide.
Among special interests represented on BBSs are dentistry, law, guns, multi-player games, Druidic practices, and information for the disabled. A significant number of BBS sites offer "adult-oriented" chat and images that can be downloaded. Many BBSs are free; some charge a membership or use fee.
Essentially, a bulletin board system is a host computer that is accessible by dial-up phone (you need to know the phone number) or, at some sites, via Telnet. Since calling a bulletin board system can involve long-distance charges, you may want to try starting with some in your area.
Bulletin board systems originated and generally operate independently of the Internet. However, many BBSs have Web sites. And many Internet access providers have bulletin board systems from which new Internet users can download the necessary software to get connected.
BBSs have their own culture and jargon. A sysop is the person who runs the site (many BBSs are on small home computers that have simply added the necessary software to keep track of files and users).
BINHEX: BinHex is a utility for converting (encoding) Macintosh files into files that will travel well on networks either as files or e-mail attachments. Like Uuencode, BinHex encodes a file from 8-bit binary or bit-stream representation into a 7-bit ASCII set of text characters. The recipient must decode it at the other end. Older e-mail utilities sometimes cant handle binary transmissions so text encoding ensures that a transmission will get to an older system. BinHex specifically handles both resource and data forks in Macintosh files (which Uuencode doesnt). BinHex files have a suffix of ".hqx". (Earlier versions have the suffix ".hex".)
Netscape and possibly other Web browsers as well as some popular e-mail applications (including Eudora) include BinHex encoding and decoding capability. Otherwise, you can download a BinHex utility for use in either the Macintosh, Windows, or other systems. (In Eudora, when writing a note you want to be transmitted in BinHex, look for the little box set to a default of "MIME" and change it to "BinHex".)

BIOS: BIOS (basic input/output system) is the program a personal computers microprocessor uses to get the computer system started after you turn it on. It also manages data flow between the computers operating system and attached devices such as the hard disk, video adapter, keyboard, mouse, and printer.
BIOS is an integral part of your computer and comes with it when you bring it home. (In contrast, the operating system can either be preinstalled by the manufacturer or vendor or installed by the user.) BIOS is a program that is made accessible to the microprocessor on an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip. When you turn on your computer, the microprocessor passes control to the BIOS program, which is always located at the same place on EPROM.
When BIOS boots up (starts up) your computer, it first determines whether all of the attachments are in place and operational and then it loads the operating system (or key parts of it) into your computers random access memory RAM from your hard disk or diskette drive.
With BIOS, your operating system and applications are freed from having to understand exact details (such as hardware addresses) about the attached input/output devices. When device details change, only the BIOS program needs to be changed. Sometimes this change can be made during your system setup. In any case, neither your operating system or any applications you use need to be changed.
Although BIOS is theoretically always the intermediary between the microprocessor and I/O device control information and data flow, in some cases, BIOS can arrange for data to flow directly to memory from devices (such as video cards) that require faster data flow to be effective.

BIT: A bit is the smallest unit of data in a computer. A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1. Although computers usually provide instructions that can test and manipulate bits, they generally are designed to store data and execute instructions in bit multiples called bytes. In most computer systems, there are eight bits in a byte. The value of a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a single capacitor within a memory device.
Half a byte (four bits) is called a nibble. In some systems, the term octet is used for an eight-bit unit instead of byte. In many systems, four eight-bit bytes or octets form a 32-bit word. In such systems, instruction lengths are sometimes expressed as full-word (32 bits in length) or half-word (16 bits in length).
In telecommunication, the bit rate is the number of bits that are transmitted in a given time period, usually a second.

BLUE SCREEN (of death): The blue screen of death is a rather terrifying display image containing white text on a blue background that is generated by Windows operating systems when the system has suddenly terminated with an error. The system is locked up and must be restarted. The blue screen may include some hexadecimal values from a memory dump that may help determine what caused the crash.
The blue screen of death can strike anywhere. At the Comdex trade show, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates encountered the blue screen during a demonstration of Windows 98. (He had a spare computer standing by.)

BODY: In E-mail terms, the part of the message containing the most textual content, sandwiched between the Header and the Signature.

BOOKMARK: Using a World Wide Web browser, a bookmark is a saved link to a Web page that has been added to a list of saved links. When you are looking at a particular Web site or home page and want to be able to quickly get back to it later, you can create a bookmark for it. You can think of your browser as a book full of (millions of ) Web pages and a few well-placed bookmarks that you have chosen. The list that contains your bookmarks is the "bookmark list" (and sometimes it is called a "hotlist").
Netscape and some other browsers use the bookmark idea. Microsofts Internet Explorer uses the term "favourite."

BOT: A bot (short for "robot") is a program that operates as an agent for a user or another program or simulates a human activity. On the Internet, the most ubiquitous bots are the programs, also called spiders or crawlers, that access Web sites and gather their content for search engine indexes.
A chatterbot is a program that can simulate talk with a human being. One of the first and most famous chatterbots (prior to the Web) was Eliza, a program that pretended to be a psychotherapist and answered questions with other questions.
Red and Andrette are two examples of programs that can be customized to answer questions from users seeking service for a product. Such a program is sometimes called a virtual representative or a virtual service agent.
Shopbots are programs that shop around the Web on your behalf and locate the best price for a product you're looking for. There are also bots such as OpenSesame that observe a user's patterns in navigating a Web site and customize the site for that user.

BPS: In data communications, bits per second (abbreviated bps) is a common measure of data speed for computer modems and transmission carriers. As the term implies, the speed in bps is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second. The duration d of a data bit, in seconds, is inversely proportional to the digital transmission speed s in bps:
d = 1/s
Larger units are sometimes used to denote high data speeds. One kilobit per second (abbreviated Kbps in the U.S.; kbps elsewhere) is equal to 1,000 bps. One megabit per second (Mbps) is equal to 1,000,000 bps or 1,000 kbps.
Computer modems for twisted-pair telephone lines usually operate at speeds between 14.4 and 57.6 kbps. The most common speeds are 28.8 and 33.6 kbps. So-called "cable modems," designed for use with TV cable networks, can operate at more than 100 kbps. Fibreoptic modems are the fastest of all; they can send and receive data at many Mbps.
The bandwidth of a signal depends on the speed in bps. With some exceptions, the higher the bps number, the greater is the nominal signal bandwidth. (Speed and bandwidth are, however, not the same thing.) Bandwidth is measured in standard frequency units of kilohertz (kHz) or megahertz (MHz).
Data speed is sometimes specified in terms of baud, which is a measure of the number of times a digital signal changes state in one second. Baud, sometimes called the "baud rate," is almost always a lower figure than bps for a given digital signal. The terms are often used interchangeably, even though they do not refer to the same thing. If you hear that a computer modem can function at "33,600 baud" or "33.6 kilobaud," you can be reasonably sure that the term is being misused, and the figures actually indicate bps.

BRB: Abbreviations of Be Right Back, commonly used online or on IRC.
BROADBAND: a means of making economical use of the bandwidth inherent in existing cables. The term is often used in relation to ADSL, where efficient use of the existing copper cables of the PSTN enables high-speed data throughput and 'always-on' connectivity.
BROWSER: A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with all the information on the World Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse text files online. By the time the first Web browser with a graphical user interface was invented (Mosaic, in 1992), the term seemed to apply to Web content, too. Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user. A commercial version of the original browser, Mosaic, is in use. Many of the user interface features in Mosaic, however, went into the first widely-used browser, Netscape Navigator. Microsoft followed with Internet Explorer. Today, these two browsers are highly competitive and the only two browsers that the vast majority of Internet users are aware of. Although the online services, such as America Online, Compuserve, and Prodigy, originally had their own browsers, virtually all now offer the Netscape or Microsoft browser. Lynx is a text-only browser for UNIX shell and VMS users. Another recently offered browser is Opera.

BYTE: In most computer systems, a byte is a unit of information that is eight bits long. A byte is the unit most computers use to represent a character such as a letter, number, or typographic symbol (for example, "g", "5", or "?"). A byte can also hold a string of bits that need to be used in some larger unit for application purposes (for example, the stream of bits that constitute a visual image for a program that displays images).
In some computer systems, four bytes constitute a word, a unit that a computer processor can be designed to handle efficiently as it reads and processes each instruction. Some computer processors can handle two-byte or single-byte instructions.
A byte is abbreviated with a "B". (A bit is abbreviated with a small "b".) Computer storage is usually measured in byte multiples. For example, an 820 MB hard drive holds a nominal 820 million bytes - or megabytes - of information. Byte multiples are based on powers of 2 and commonly expressed as a "rounded off" decimal number. For example, one megabyte ("one million bytes") is actually 1,048,576 (decimal) bytes. (Confusingly, however, some hard disk manufacturers and dictionary sources state that bytes for computer storage should be calculated as powers of 10 so that a megabyte really would be one million decimal bytes.)
Some language scripts require two bytes to represent a character. These are called double-byte character sets (DBCS).
According to Fred Brooks, an early hardware architect for IBM, project manager for the OS/360 operating system, and author of The Mythical Man-Month, Dr. Werner Buchholz originated the term byte in 1956 when working on IBM's STRETCH computer.