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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. The most advanced backbones right
now handle speeds of up to 622 megabits per second
( OC 12).
See Also:
Network,
OC
3,
OC
12
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Bandwidth
|
How much stuff you can send
through a connection. Usually measured in
bits-per-second. A full page of English text is
about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move up
to about 35,000 bits in one second or more.
Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly
10 megabits-per-second, depending on
compression.
See Also:
Bps,
Bit,
T
1,
T
3,
Monthly
Bandwidth Use,
Modem
|
|
Baud
|
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).
See Also:
Bit,
Modem
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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.
See Also:
Download,
Upload
|
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Binary
|
A numeric representation only
with 1 and 0. Each "digit", or "bit"
can have a value of 1 or 0 and no other. Numbers
can be represented with several "digits", and the
number of these digits limit the range of values
that can be represented. A set of 2
bits
can take values of 0 through 3, which makes 4
values (base 4). A set of 3 will make the range of
values go from 0 through 7, which makes 8 values
(base 8 or "Octal").
A set of 8 "bits"
can take values of 0 through 255, and is called a
"Byte".
See Also:
Bit,
Byte,
Octal,
Bit
|
|
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. It is mostly
used on MacIntosh.
See Also:
ASCII
, MIME
, UUENCODE
|
|
Bit
|
Binary DigIT -- A single
digit number in base-2. In other words, either a 1
or a zero. The smallest unit of computerized data.
Bandwidth is usually measured in
bits-per-second. Characters are usually represented
by sets of 8 bits (a Byte).
See Also:
Bandwidth
, Bps
, Byte
, Kilobyte
, Megabyte,
Binary
|
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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.
Also see:
E-mail,
Operating
System,
Internet,
Network
|
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Boot
|
Booting is the startup
process that any computer has to go through to be
usable, usually after a short self test, it starts
loading the operating system then configures
itself for use within the environment then runs
whatever software it was set to run at
startup.
See Also:
Operating
System,
UNIX
|
|
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.
See Also:
Bandwidth
, Bit,
Modem
|
|
BTW
|
By The Way -- A shorthand
appended to a comment written in an online forum.
Also used in e-mail messages.
See Also:
IMHO
, TTFN
|
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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. A set of 8 bits
can take values of 0 through 255, which makes 256
values. A byte can also be represented as 2
"Hexadecimal"
digits, which have values of 0 through F (16
values, base 16).
See Also:
Bit,
Binary,
Hexadecimal
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