| ISP Dictionary - ISP Glossary Definitions for 'b' |
| B2B - Business to Business. A mode of conducting business between two or more companies over the Internet, rather than more traditional modes such as telephone,... |
| B2C - Business to Consumer. Another business model over the Internet. |
| B2R - Back to Reality! |
| Baby AT - A motherboard form factor that has the same traits as the standard AT form factor, such as AT power connectors and keyboard input port. However, it is... |
| back door - a means of access to a computer program that bypasses security mechanisms. A programmer may sometimes install a back door so that the program can be accessed... |
| Back-end - A type of program or process that is not directly accessed by a user. Often it will carry out its tasks independently of the front-end or user interface.... |
| backbone - A central network connecting other networks together. Formerly a network run by the National Science Foundation for the US, there are now multiple |
| backdoor - a means of access to a computer program that bypasses security mechanisms. A programmer may sometimes install a back door so that the program can be accessed... |
| Backplane - As opposed to standard cabling schemes where flexible wires are used, a backplane refers to a rigid circuit board that will support higher connection speeds... |
| Backside Bus - In some architectures, such as Socket 7, the speed of the backside bus determined how fast the microprocessor could talk to its external L2 cache. Newer... |
| Backup Domain Controller - One or more computers running Windows NT that act as a backup to the primary domain controller (PDC). These machines can authenticate security requests... |
| Balance - The control for the level of sound coming out of the left or right speakers. If you turn the balance control all the way in either direction, you can isolate... |
| Ball Grid Array - As opposed to a pin grid array (PGA), a ball grid array is a type of microchip connection methodology. Ball grid array chips typically use a group of solder... |
| bandwidth - Literally, the frequency width of a transmission channel in Hertz, kiloHertz, megaHertz, etc. Often used as an expression of the amount of |
| 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... |
| Banner ad - The most common form of advertising found on the Web. The traditional size of a banner ad is 468 by 60 pixels, but there are many other sizes in general... |
| BASIC - This programming language was developed in the mid '60s. The language was constructed of simple, English-like commands that were run through an interpreter,... |
| Basic Input Output System - A program stored on your motherboard that controls all of the interaction between your components and your chipset. Simple access to video, keyboard, hard... |
| Batch - A group of commands that are executed one at a time. See also Batch File |
| Batch File - A file in a DOS/Windows environment with the .bat extension. This file type is executable in DOS or at a Windows command prompt. Batch programs are written... |
| Battery - A device consisting of one or more cells that can produce a direct current by converting chemical energy to electrical energy. Batteries typically have... |
| baud - Rate of transmission speed in a signal - the number of changes of state, such as voltage or frequency, per second in a signal. Named for the French teleprinter... |
| 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... |
| Baudot code - The Baudot code, used by early teleprinters, represents letters, numbers, and symbols in five-character binary codes, which includes shifts to increase... |
| bayonet connector - See BNC |
| BBIAB - Online speak for "Be Back In A Bit" |
| bbl - Chat shorthand for "be back later". |
| BBS - Bulletin Board System. A dial-up service offering messages, files, and other services over a modem. BBS were very popular in the 1980s and early 1990s,... |
| 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. |
| BCP - A program used to copy databases or parts of databases in Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server environments. It was at first a command line program, but graphical... |
| BDC - One or more computers running Windows NT that act as a backup to the primary domain controller (PDC). These machines can authenticate security requests... |
| BEDO - A type of EDO RAM that can read three consecutive memory locations in three clock cycles--a 1-1-1 burst. This makes BEDO RAM much faster at reading large... |
| Beep Code - When you turn on your PC--and all is well--you typically hear a single beep from your computer speaker, signaling that all is OK. If things are wrong--and... |
| Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - This programming language was developed in the mid '60s. The language was constructed of simple, English-like commands that were run through an interpreter,... |
| Benchmarking - The process of measuring the performance of hardware or software in a specifically defined and strictly controlled environment. The benchmarking result... |
| BeOS - An operating system designed by Be, Inc. The original goal of BeOS was to create an OS able to process multiple digital media streams efficiently, with... |
| Beowulf - A cluster of computers connected to a high-speed private network, running Linux, FreeBSD, or another free OS, and using Beowulf software to function like... |
| Beowulf Project - This project serves as a repository of information for creating clusters of computers, called Beowulfs, that function as one massively parallel machine.... |
| Berkeley Internet Named Domain - A DNS software package for UNIX/Linux machines. It contains a DNS server, API library, and tools. It is the most widely used DNS server, and most of the... |
| Beta - A term given to a product that isn't ready for public consumption, but is good enough for a wider testing scope. Many companies publicly release their... |
| 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... |
| bfn - Chat shorthand for "bye for now". |
| BGA - As opposed to a pin grid array (PGA), a ball grid array is a type of microchip connection methodology. Ball grid array chips typically use a group of solder... |
| BGP - The protocol used by the core routers on the Internet to route TCP/IP packets. BGP replaces the older Exterior Gateway Protocol. Core routers use BGP exchange... |
| Bilinear Filtering - Used to smooth flat surfaces by averaging the colors of adjacent pixels, which blurs them and removes blockiness when viewed up close. |
| binary - Binary means the use of only two values, zero and one, in encoding |
| Binary code - Binary consists of a string of bits, with bits represented by 1s and 0s, e.g., 01010111000000001. The "bi" refers to base 2 mathematical representation... |
| binary files - Binary files are files that include up to 256 different characters |
| Binary Large OBject - A BLOB is a data type used in a relational database that can contain any type of binary data, including sound, video, graphics, etc. |
| Binary Search - A search technique that splits an ordered list into halves until a result is found. Thus, it splits the list into a top and bottom half, then picks the... |
| Binary Tree - An ordered tree where each node has no more than two child nodes. Child nodes are typically distinguished as left and right child nodes. |
| BIND - A DNS software package for UNIX/Linux machines. It contains a DNS server, API library, and tools. It is the most widely used DNS server, and most of the... |
| BIOS - A program stored on your motherboard that controls all of the interaction between your components and your chipset. Simple access to video, keyboard, hard... |
| Bistable Multivibrator - A simple element of memory made up of an assembly of logic gates. Based on inputs, the state of a flip-flop can be changed back and forth, affecting the... |
| bit - Short for binary digit (0 or 1). Lower case b is used in abbreviations to distinguish it from bytes. For example, KBps (thousand bytes per second) is 8... |
| Bit depth - How many bits it takes to represent the color in one pixel. The greater the bit depth, the more colors you can potentially display, and the more power... |
| Bit Rate - The amount of bits per second used to encode audio data in an MP3 or other compressed audio file. Bit rate is typically listed in kilobits per second (kbps).... |
| 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... |
| Bitmap font - A font where each character is stored as a bitmap graphic. These fonts are not easy to scale to different sizes. |
| Bits per second - This is generally a measure of how fast some device communicates, usually in thousands of bits per second (Kbps) or millions of bits per second (Mbps).... |
| Black box - Anything that you put input into and get output from, but don't know what's inside or how it works. The black represents the box being opaque so that you... |
| Black hat - A malicious hacker. If a hacker finds a security hole and exploits it or lets others know about it before letting the people affected by the hole know... |
| Blind Carbon Copy - When sending an e-mail, if you BCC someone you are sending him or her a copy of your e-mail, but not allowing the recipients in the "To" or "CC" fields... |
| BLOB - A BLOB is a data type used in a relational database that can contain any type of binary data, including sound, video, graphics, etc. |
| Block Mode - A setting in the computer BIOS relating to IDE hard drives. The setting determines the type of Logical Block Addressing that will be used to translate... |
| blog - Short for web log; usually a chronological record of thoughts, links, events, or actions posted on the web. For examples, see the Yahoo Directory of Weblogs.... |
| bluesnarfing - theft of information from a wireless device using Bluetooth transmission. By exploiting a vulnerability in the way Bluetooth is implemented, an attacker... |
| BNC - A connector type for 10Base2 or Thin-Net networks. Shaped like the letter T, it connects coaxial cables. The "T" has two male connectors and one female... |
| BNC, 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... |
| BOFH - "Bastard Operator From Hell," a classic diary of the ultimate in outrageous system support widely posted on Usenet. Always worth a return visit. |
| bookmark - Just as a paper bookmark is used as a reminder of the page you are on in a book, electronic bookmarks are used to bring you back to a website or other... |
| Boolean logic - The form of logic where every answer is either true or false. Alternately, you can think of it as either 0 or 1, where 0 = false and 1 = true. |
| Boolean search - A method of searching for information in databases that combines search terms with the operators AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses. See a fuller explanation |
| Boot - A verb meaning to load into physical memory (RAM) from the hard drive (or other media). You can say that you are booting your machine, or that your operating... |
| Boot disk - A floppy disk or other disk media that contains the files needed to start an operating system. PCs are often set up so that the floppy and/or CD/DVD drive... |
| Boot Record - The first sector on a hard disk or other disk media. When a computer boots up it searches for a master boot record wherever the BIOS tells it to (usually... |
| Boot Sector - The first sector of a bootable partition. It contains the information needed to start loading the operating system. |
| BootP - This protocol is the basis for DHCP. It allows a client computer to receive an IP address from a BootP server without having a static IP address defined... |
| Bootstrap - This either refers to a small piece of intermediate code that will boot up an operating system, or the act of building something without help. See also... |
| Bootstrap Protocol - This protocol is the basis for DHCP. It allows a client computer to receive an IP address from a BootP server without having a static IP address defined... |
| Bootstrapping - The process of developing something without reliance on outside help such as investor money. It's referred to often today, and often in the Dot-Com heyday,... |
| Border Gateway Protocol - The protocol used by the core routers on the Internet to route TCP/IP packets. BGP replaces the older Exterior Gateway Protocol. Core routers use BGP exchange... |
| 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... |
| Bottleneck - Part of a system that limits the performance of the system. This term was derived from the neck of a bottle, which limits the flow of liquid due to the... |
| bounce - The return of an e-mail message because of an error in its address or delivery. |
| Boxed Processor - A microprocessor that is sold singly in a retail box, like something you would buy at a store. This compares to just buying a processor that some OEM takes... |
| Bps - Bytes per second. |
| brb - Chat shorthand for "be right back". |
| Brick and Mortar - A store or business that either doesn't have a Web presence or has mainly physical locations as opposed to websites. Bricks and mortar are common building... |
| bridge - A bridge is a combination of hardware and software that connects local area networks (LANs) of similar types together. See router. |
| brinking - Testing rules by getting as close as possible to breaking them without stepping over the line. A technique frequently used by trolls to stir up trouble... |
| broadband - When the bandwidth of a signal is large, it can simultaneously carry many channels of information. Fiber optic cable, in particular, has a very high bandwidth,... |
| Broadcast - A method of sending information over a network. With broadcasting, data comes from one source and goes to all other connected sources. This has the side... |
| browser - Software that will load and display a web page. A browser interprets the HTML or XML code from the web page files, executes embedded scripts and programs,... |
| browser hijacker - a type of malware program that alters your computer's browser settings so that you are redirected to Web sites that you had no intention of visiting. Often... |
| BSOD - A Windows error message that is shown on a screen with a blue background. In Windows NT/2000/XP, this type of message causes the computer to stop completely,... |
| btdt - Chat slang for "Been there, done that". |
| btw - Chat shorthand for "by the way". |
| Buffer - A temporary location to store or group information in hardware or software. Buffers are used whenever data is received in sizes that may be different than... |
| Buffered memory - Memory modules that have extra chips on them to support Error Checking and Correcting (ECC) functionality. |
| Bug - This is commonly an error in design or programming in a hardware device or piece of software. The effects of a bug may be as harmless as an extra graphic... |
| Bulk Copy Program - A program used to copy databases or parts of databases in Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server environments. It was at first a command line program, but graphical... |
| Bulletin Board System - A bulletin board system used to describe message boards that people would dial into directly with modems before the Internet was easily accessible. Instead... |
| bundling - the practice of including multiple products in a package deal. Frequently, spyware is bundled with freeware or shareware products. |
| Burn - Widely used slang that describes the creation of a CD-R disc. During the creation of a CD-R, a laser is used to burn tiny holes inside the disk media.... |
| Burn in - The running of repetitive tasks on a computer to ensure that the computer is functioning properly. It also describes what can happen to older CRT screens... |
| Burst EDO RAM - A type of EDO RAM that can read three consecutive memory locations in three clock cycles--a 1-1-1 burst. This makes BEDO RAM much faster at reading large... |
| bus - An electronic pathway. In networks, a configuration (topology) with a single linear cable, terminated at each end, to which computers and devices are connected.... |
| Bus mouse - A mouse that uses the smaller 6-pin connector instead of your computer's serial port. Also referred to as a PS/2 mouse because of its early adoption in... |
| Bus speed - A measurement, usually in MHz, of how many times data can be transferred over the bus per second. |
| Bus Topology - This network topology has computers connected to a strand of network cabling that is connected to network repeaters at one end and terminated at the other.... |
| Business to Business - This term is often used to describe websites that sell goods or services to other businesses. Thus, businesses are serving other businesses as opposed... |
| Business to Consumer - A form of doing business that deals with selling goods and services to the consumer marketplace. Examples of this would be selling consumer electronics,... |
| byte - 8 bits of data. Capital B is used in abbreviations to distinguish it from bits. For example, KBps (thousand bytes per second) is 8 times as great as Kbps... |
| Bytes per second - This is generally a measure of how fast some device communicates, usually in thousands of bytes per second (KBps) or millions of bytes per second (MBps).... |