| A word or picture 'marked' so that you can jump to it by name from within a list. Also used by browsers to mark frequently visited web sites. | | |
| The speed at which a modem can deal with information, measured in bits per second, 56Kbps is currently fastest. | | |
| To switch on a computer. If the machine is re-started whilst running, this is called 're-booting'. | | |
| A Term used to describe how much data you can send through a connection to the Net. The transmission capacity of a given medium, in terms of how much data the medium can transmit in a given amount of time. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the rate of data transmission. Information carrying capacity of a communication channel. | | |
| To make a second copy of a file as a safety measure. The copy may be held on a floppy disk, a zip disk, or on CD-ROM. | | |
| An acronym for BInary digiT. It is the basic unit of information in the computer world. A bit is a digit in binary form and carries one of two values, 0 or 1. | | |
| Basic Input-Output System. This is the small but fundamental program which starts up your computer and allows you to access your software programs. | | |
| Files which contain eight-bit bytes (as distinct from ASCII files which contain seven-bit bytes). Some systems can only accept ASCII. is often referred to as the backbone and its allows data to travel from one network to another. | | |
| Software that allows users to access and navigate the World Wide Web. Some Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Mozilla, are graphical. Lynx is a text-based browser. | | |
| Bulletin Board Service. A forum for users to browse and exchange information. Computer BBSs are accessible by telephone via a personal computer and a modem. Many BBSs are small operations run by a single person that allow only several users to log on at the same time. Some are much larger and allow hundreds of users to login simultaneously to use the system. Huge, commercial examples are America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy. | | |