Reference & Manual > Glossary > B

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.

Backbone Providers
Companies that provide the unique ability for electronic data to travel over the optimal path to reach its destination. Examples: Sprint, MCI, etc.

Bandwidth
The total amount of data that can be sent through a network connection in a certain time, usually measured in bits per second (bps), megabits per second (Mbps), or gigabits per second (Gbps). The bandwidth provides for a faster loading time for your web site. It is also important because most web hosts only allow a fixed amount of bandwidth each month. Going over the limit can be costly. Be sure to know your exact bandwidth limitations.

Baud
Unit of signaling speed equal to the number of discrete signal elements transmitted per second. Baud is synonymous with bits per second (bps). In common usage the baud rate 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).

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. There are many thousands (millions?) of BBS's around the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with 1 or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and a system like CompuServe gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly drawn.

Binary
Pertaining to a number system that has just two unique digits. Computers are based on the binary numbering system, which consists of just two unique numbers, 0 and 1.

Binary Mode
FTP client mode used to transfer binary files (multimedia files, executables and other data files). Not suitable for transferring normal text files.

Binding
Just as in normal usage, binding refers to attaching something to something else. Usually used in reference to attaching IP ADDRESSES to a server.

Binhex
(BINary HEXadecimal) -- A method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII. This is needed because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII.

Bit
Short for binary digit, the smallest unit of information on a machine. A single bit can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1.

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. Listservs , the most popular form of e-mail discussion groups, originated on BITNET. BITNET machines are usually mainframes running the VMS operating system, and the network is probably the only international network that is shrinking.

Bit rate
(The speed at which bits are transmitted over a communication link. Expressed in bits per second (bps).

Blog (Web Log), Blogger, Blogging
Blog, a contraction of 'web ' and ' log ', describes a website consisting of date-related entries (or posts ). Blogs are typically of a personal nature, although their use by companies as a marketing tool is increasing. Categorizes blogs into 'filter' and 'short-form journal' genres. In addition, new tools have created a new type of blog; 'distributed conversation'.

Bookmark
Nearly all web browsers support a book marking feature that lets you save the address (URL) of a web page so that you can easily revisit the page at a later time.

Bps
(Bits-Per-Second) -- A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits per second.

BRB
Be Right Back

Bridge
A network device used to connect two LANs using different cabling.

Broadband
Broadband is a form of data transmission where a single medium (wire) can carry different types of information simultaneously. For example; a single cable may provide internet access, telephone and cable television.
Broadband is commonly used as an synonym for high-bandwidth. Broadband describes the properties of the medium used for data transmission; while bandwidth is the rate of data transfer

Broadcast
Sending a packet to all machines on the network.

Browser
Computer program that allows to search the World Wide Web and displays the content of the web pages. Examples are Mosaic, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer.

BrowserHawk
BrowserHawk is an ASP COMPONENT that can assist you in customizing your pages based on the capabilities of a visitor's browser. For instance, you can use BrowserHawk to tell if a visitor's browser supports FLASH , and if it doesn't, have a different image display.

Browser sniffing
The process in which the web site tries to determine what kind of web browser the user is using. This is done to suit the website to the particular capabilities of the browser.

BTW
(By The Way) -- A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.

Burst
In web hosting, burst is when a client suddenly uses more bandwidth than is expected under its contract.Typically, the web hosting company expects this to happen occasionally and has set fees for the client depending on the bandwidth used.

Byte
A byte is composed of 8 bits or "on-off" signals. You can think of a byte as being the computer representation for a letter, like "A," a number like "7," or an instruction to multiply two numbers, like "3 * 6." For the purposes of creating a Web site, the number of bytes will measure the size of your site in terms of disk space. For instance, if your Web hosting plan allows you to publish a 2 MB (Megabytes or million bytes) Web site, then essentially it can be made up of 2 million characters or instructions.