Internet glossary

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Back/Forward - Buttons in most browsers' Tool Button Bar, upper left. BACK returns you to the document previously viewed. FORWARD goes to the next document, after you go BACK. If it seems like the BACK button does not work, check if you are in a new browser window; some Web pages are programmed to open a new window when you click on some links. Each window has its own short-term search HISTORY. If this does not work, right click on the BACK button to select the page you want (some Web pages are programmed to disable BACK).

Backbone - A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

Bandwidth - How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (bps.) A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression. Internet glossary.

Bang address - An old system of mail addressing in UUCP networks, where the successive routing addresses were followed by exclamation points (also known as bangs) and the addressee was the last element.

Baud - In common usage the "baud" of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300= 1200 bits per second). Internet glossary.

Baud rate - A nearly obsolete term for transmission rates synonymous in early, simple systems with bits per second. In faster, more complex systems of encoding and transmitting data, the term loses its simple meaning and has fallen into disuse (and frequent misuse).  Internet glossary.

Baudot code - The Baudot code, used by early teleprinters, represents letters, numbers, and symbols in five-character binary codes, which includes shifts to increase the number of characters beyond 32.

bbl - Chat shorthand for "be back later".

BBS (Bulletin Board System) - A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements without the people being connected to the computer at the same time. In the early 1990's there were many thousands (millions?) of BBS's around the world, most were very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone lines. Some were very large and the line between a BBS and a system like AOL gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn. Internet glossary.

Bcc - Blind Carbon Copy. Unlike the Cc option (Carbon Copy), when the Bcc address option is selected in e-mail, other addressees do not see the Bcc address.

Beta test - In software development, a stage of testing where the program is tried out with a selected trial audience to find and correct bugs, usually people of similar backgrounds to those expected to use the software.

Binary - Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used to refer to files that are not simply text files, e.g. images.

Bit - A single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero. The smallest unit of computerized data. Bandwidthis usually measured in bits-per-second.

Bitmap - A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, Macintosh Paint, Microsoft Paint, BMP, PNG, FAX formats, and TGA. Internet glossary.

Bitnet (Because It's Time NETwork or Because It's There NETwork) - A network of educational sites separate from the Internet, but e-mail is freely exchanged between BITNET and the Internet. BITNET is probably the only international network that is shrinking.

Blog (weB LOG) - A blog is a type of web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal (or log) for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. Blog software usually has an archive of old blog postings. Many blogs can be searched for terms in the archive. Blogs have become a vibrant, fast-growing medium for communication in professional, political, news, trendy, and other specialized web communities. Many blogs provide RSS feeds, to which one can subscribe and receive alerts to new postings in selected blogs. Internet glossary.

Blogosphere or Blogsphere - The current state of all information available on blogs and/or the sub-culture of those who create and use blogs.

BNC connector - Short for BayoNet Connector or Baby N Connector or Bayonet Neill-Concelman (for the inventors Paul Neill and Carl Concelman who developed the similar N and C connectors separately and the BNC and TNC connectors together). It is also sometimes called a British Naval Connector, although the origin is questionable. A twist-and-lock connector for coaxial cable, BNC connectors are used for electronic equipment and LANs and permit frequencies into the gigaHertz ranges.

Bookmark/Favorites - Way in browsers to store in your computer direct links to sites you wish to return to. Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox use the term Bookmarks. The equivalent in Internet Explorer (IE) is called a "Favorite." To create a bookmark, click on BOOKMARKS or FAVORITES, then ADD. Or left-click on and drag the little bookmark icon to the place you want a new bookmark filed. To visit a bookmarked site, click on BOOKMARKS and select the site from the list. You can download a bookmark file to diskette and install it on another computer. In most browsers now, you can do this with an Import... and Export... set of commands which can be found under FILE or in the Manage Bookmarks window's FILE. Internet glossary.

Boolean search - A method of searching for information in databases that combines search terms with the operators AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses.

Bot - Short for robot, a program designed to search the Internet looking for information. A common use of bots is the variously named spiders, worms, and crawlers that support search engines by following links from site to site and within a site to dig out information to be indexed by the search engine. Another is the MusicBot™ used by BMI to find who is putting unlicensed, copyrighted music on web pages. Internet glossary.

Bounce - The return of an e-mail message because of an error in its address or delivery.

bps (Bits-Per-Second) - A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.

Bridge - A bridge is a combination of hardware and software that connects local area networks (LANs) of similar types together.

Broadband - Generally refers to connections to the Internet with much greater bandwidth than you can get with a modem. There is no specific definition of the speed of a "broadband" connection but in general any Internet connection using DSL or a via Cable-TV may be considered a broadband connection. Internet glossary.

Browse - To follow links in a page, to shop around in a page, exploring what's there, a bit like window shopping. The opposite of browsing a page is searching it. When you search a page, you find a search box, enter terms, and find all occurrences of the terms throughout the site. When you browse, you have to guess which words on the page pertain to your interests. Searching is usually more efficient, but sometimes you find things by browsing that you might not find because you might not think of the "right" term to search by. Internet glossary.

Browser - A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds of Internet resources.

Byte - A set of Bits that represent a single character. Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more, depending on how the measurement is being made.