Web Glossary

Click on any letter below to search for a word starting with that letter in our Web Glossary

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 0-9

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Backbone
Segment of a communications network where many lines come together. The term is relative ("the" Internet backbone doesn't exist): a backbone in a small network will be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

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Bandwidth
The transmission capacity, usually measured in bits per second (see bps) of a network connection.
The greater the bandwidth the more information can be transferred over the network at one time. The term bandwidth also broadly includes throughput, meaning the amount of data sent.

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Banner
Advertisement in the form of a graphic image on the Web. Most banner ads are animated GIFs.

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Baud
A unit of speed in data transmission, or the maximum speed at which data can be sent down a channel, usually a modem. Although not technically accurate, baud rate is commonly used to mean bit rate (the number of bits transmitted per second) (see bps). Named after J. M. E. Baudot (died 1903).

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BBS - Bulletin Board System
Members of a BBS can dial into their BBS, mostly to download files, to send email or to join discussion groups. BBS's were the main source of the online community until the breakthrough of the Internet and the WWW.

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Beta
A software application that is made available prior to the official release for the purposes of testing.

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BinHex
A file conversion format that converts binary files to ASCII text files.

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Bit - Binary DigIT
The smallest unit of computerized data. A bit is either "on" or "off" and is represented by "1" or "0". Eight bits is equivalent to a byte. The speed at which bits are transmitted or bit rate is usually expressed as bits per second or bps.

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Bookmark
Browser feature that allows you to save a link to a Web page. You can always use this bookmark to return to that page.

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Bounce
Return of an email because it could not be delivered to the specified address.

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Bps - Bits Per Second
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another, usually in thousands of bits per second (Kbps) or million of bits per second (Mbps). A 28.8 modem can transport 28,800 bits per second.

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Broadband
A transmission method in which the networks range of transmission frequencies is divided into separate channels and each channel is used to send a different signal. Broadband is often used to send different types of signals simultaneously.

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Browser - Web Browser
Tool (software program) that allows you to surf the Web. The most popular Web Browsers right now are Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. The very first Web browsers, such as Lynx, only allowed users to see text.

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Byte
A set of 8 bits that represent a number from 0 to 255.

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