Backbone
Just like the human backbone carries signals to many smaller nerves in the body, a network backbone carries data to smaller lines of transmission. A local backbone refers to the main network lines that connect several local area networks (LANs) together. The result is a wide area network (WAN) linked by a backbone connection.
The Internet, which is the ultimate wide area network, relies on a backbone to carry data over long distances. The Internet backbone consists of several ultra-highbandwidth connections that link together many different nodes around the world. These nodes route incoming data to smaller networks in the local region. The fewer "hops" your data needs to make before reaching the backbone, the faster it will get sent to the destination. This is why many Web hosts and ISPs have direct connections to the Internet backbone.
Backlink
A backlink is an incoming link from an external website to specific webpage. For example, if you publish a webpage and 20 other websites link to it, your webpage has 20 backlinks. Links to the page from within your own website are not included in the backlink total.
Web developers benefit from backlinks (or "inlinks") in two different ways — direct traffic and search result placement. As more links to a specific webpage are published on external sites, there is greater potential for traffic to be generated from other websites. This is called direct traffic. By increasing direct traffic, a website can gradually grow its presence on the Web and generate a steady stream of visitors from other websites.
While direct traffic is helpful, most websites generate the majority of their traffic through search engines. Since search engines use backlinks as an important part of the their algorithms for search result placement, external links are important for good search ranking. Therefore, generating backlinks has become common practice for search engine optimization, or SEO. The more backlinks a webpage has, the better the chance that the page will rank highly in search results for relevant keywords. If a website has many pages that have backlinks, the overall number of incoming links may help increase the ranking of all pages within the website. While most backlinks point to a website's home page, incoming links to other pages within the website are beneficial as well.
Banner Ad
Whether you like it or not, much of the Web is run by advertising. Just like television or radio, websites can offer free content by generating revenue from advertising. While you may get tired of Web ads from time to time, most people would agree that seeing a few advertisements here and there is better than paying a usage fee for each website.
Perhaps the most prolific form of Web advertising is the banner ad. It is a long, rectangular image that can be placed just about anywhere on a Web page. Most banner ads are 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high (468x60). They may contain text, images, or sometimes those annoying animations that make it hard to focus on the page's content. Regardless of the type of banner ad, when a user clicks the advertisement, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website.
Bcc
Stands for "Blind Carbon Copy." When you send an e-mail to only one person, you type the recipient's address in the "To:" field. When you send a message to more than one person, you have the option to enter addresses in the "Cc:" and "Bcc:" fields. "Cc" stands for "Carbon Copy," while "Bcc" stands for "Blind Carbon Copy."
A carbon copy, or "Cc'd" message is an e-mail that is copied to one or more recipients. Both the main recipient (whose address is in the "To:" field) and the Cc'd recipients can see all the addresses the message was sent to. When a message is blind carbon copied, neither the main recipient nor the Bcc'd recipients can see the addresses in the "Bcc:" field.
Blind carbon copying is a useful way to let others see an e-mail you sent without the main recipient knowing. It is faster than sending the original message and then forwarding the sent message to the other recipients. It is also good netiquette to use Bcc when copying a message to many people. This prevents the e-mail addresses from being captured by someone in the list who might use them for spamming purposes. However, if it is important that each recipient knows who your message was sent to, use carbon copy (Cc) instead.
Big Data
The phrase "big data" is often used in enterprise settings to describe large amounts of data. It does not refer to a specific amount of data, but rather describes a dataset that cannot be stored or processed using traditional database software.
Examples of big data include the Google search index, the database of Facebook user profiles, and Amazon.com's product list. These collections of data (or "datasets") are so large that the data cannot be stored in a typical database, or even a single computer. Instead, the data must be stored and processed using a highly scalable database management system. Big data is often distributed across multiple storage devices, sometimes in several different locations.
Many traditional database management systems have limits to how much data they can store. For example, an Access 2010 database can only contain two gigabytes of data, which makes it infeasible to store several petabytes or exabytes of data. Even if a DBMS can store large amounts of data, it may operate inefficiently if too many tables or records are created, which can lead to slow performance. Big data solutions solve these problems by providing highly responsive and scalable storage systems.
There are several different types of big data software solutions, including data storage platforms and data analytics programs. Some of the most common big data software products include Apache Hadoop, IBM's Big Data Platform, Oracle NoSQL Database, Microsoft HDInsight, and EMC Pivotal One.
Bing
Bing is a search engine developed by Microsoft. It provides a standard web search, as well as specialized searches for images, videos, shopping, news, maps, and other categories.
Bing originated from MSN Search, which later became Windows Live Search (or simply "Live Search"). Microsoft renamed the search engine to "Bing" in June of 2009. The name change also reflected Microsoft's new direction with the search engine, which the company branded as a "decision engine." Bing is designed to help users make important decisions faster. This focus is summarized in the search engine's slogan, "Bing and decide."
Bing differentiates itself from other search engines like Google and Yahoo in several different ways. For instance, Bing's home page includes a background image or video that is updated every day. You can click on different areas of the background to learn more about the daily topic. Bing also uses Microsoft's proprietary search algorithm to provide relevant search results. These results may include "instant answers," which provide helpful information at the top of the search results page for specific types of queries. The search results may also include images, videos, shopping information, or news stories that are relevant to the keywords you entered.
You can choose to sign into Bing using your Windows Live ID or your Facebook login. When you are logged into Facebook, Bing displays which of your friends "Like" specific webpages in the search results. If you want even more Facebook integration, you can download the "Bing Bar," which provides News Feed updates directly from the toolbar in Internet Explorer. The Bing Bar also provides one-click access to weather, maps, videos, stock quotes, and other information.
Try Bing for yourself.
BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol designed to reduce the bandwidth required to transfer files. It does this by distributing file transfers across multiple systems, thereby lessening the average bandwidth used by each computer. For example, if a user begins downloading a movie file, the BitTorrent system will locate multiple computers with the same file and begin downloading the file from several computers at once. Since most ISPs offer much faster download speeds than upload speeds, downloading from multiple computers can significantly increase the file transfer rate.
In order to use the BitTorrent protocol, you need a BitTorrent client, which is a software program that accesses the BitTorrent network. The client program allows you to search for files and begin downloading torrents, which are in-progress downloads. Most BitTorrent clients allow you to resume torrents that have been paused or stopped. This can be especially helpful when downloading large files.
For a list of BitTorrent clients, view the .TORRENT file extension entry
Blog
Short for "Web Log," this term refers to a list of journal entries posted on a Web page. Anybody who knows how to create and publish a Web page can publish their own blog. Some Web hosts have made it even easier by creating an interface where users can simply type a text entry and hit "publish" to publish their blog.
Because of the simplicity of creating a blog, many people (often young kids and adults) have found a new presence on the Web. Instead of writing confidential entries in a book that no one is supposed to see, people now can share their personal feelings and experiences with thousands of people around the world. Blogs are typically updated daily, monthly, or anywhere in between. "Blog" may also be used as a verb, as in "Wow, Matt sure blogged a lot last week."
Bookmark
A bookmark is a saved shortcut that directs your browser to a specific webpage. It stores the title, URL, and favicon of the corresponding page. Saving bookmarks allows you to easily access your favorite locations on the Web.
All major web browsers allow you to create bookmarks, though each browser provides a slightly different way of managing them. For example, Chrome and Firefox display your bookmarks in an open window, while Safari displays them in a list in the sidebar of the browser window. Internet Explorer uses the name "Favorites" to refer to bookmarks, and like Safari, it displays all your favorites in a list within the browser window sidebar.
To create a bookmark, simply visit the page you want to bookmark and select Add Bookmark or Bookmark this Page from the Bookmarks menu. In Internet Explorer, you can click the star icon to open the Favorites sidebar and click Add to Favorites to add the current page to your bookmarks. The website title will show up in your bookmarks list along with the website's favicon if available. As your collection of bookmarks grows, you can create folders to organize your bookmarks into different categories.
It is helpful to bookmark frequently visited websites and useful references since you don't have to remember the URLs. Additionally, you can just click the bookmarks instead of typing in the full web addresses. Some browsers even display your bookmarked pages in the autocomplete drop down menu as you type in the address bar. This allows you to visit bookmarked pages without even opening the bookmarks window or sidebar in your browser.
NOTE: A bookmark only stores the location of a webpage, not store the contents of the webpage itself. Therefore, when you open a previously saved bookmark, the contents of page may have changed since the last time you viewed it.
Bot
A bot (short for "robot") is an automated program that runs over the Internet. Some bots run automatically, while others only execute commands when they receive specific input. There are many different types of bots, but some common examples include web crawlers, chat room bots, and malicious bots.
Web crawlers are used by search engines to scan websites on a regular basis. These bots "crawl" websites by following the links on each page. The crawler saves the contents of each page in the search index. By using complex algorithms, search engines can display the most relevant pages discovered by web crawlers for specific search queries.
Chat bots were one of the first types of automated programs to be called "bots" and became popular in the 1990s, with the rise of online chatrooms. These bots are scripts that look for certain text patterns submitted by chat room participants and respond with automated actions. For example, a chat bot might warn a user if his or language is inappropriate. If the user does not heed the warning, the bot might kick the user from the channel and may even block the user from returning. A more advanced type of chat bot, called a "chatterbot" can respond to messages in plain English, appearing to be an actual person. Both types of chat bots are used for chatroom moderation, which eliminates the need for an individual to monitor individual chatrooms.
While most bots are used for productive purposes, some are considered malware, since they perform undesirable functions. For example, spambots capture email addresses from website contact forms, address books, and email programs, then add them to a spam mailing list. Site scrapers download entire websites, enabling unauthorized duplication of a website's contents. DoS bots send automated requests to websites, making them unresponsive. Botnets, which consist of many bots working together, may be used to gain unauthorized access to computer systems and infect computers with viruses.
Bounce
The term "bounce" has several different IT related meanings, yet none of them include bouncy balls. The most common definition of bounce used in the computer world refers to e-mail messages.
1. Returning E-mail
When you send an e-mail message to another person, the mail server processes the message and delivers it to the appropriate user's mailbox. For example, if you send a message to "mrman@mail.com," the mail.com server looks for a user named "mrman" to deliver the message to. If the user does not exist, the mail server may bounce the message back to the sender, saying "Sorry, that user does not exist." These messages often come from "Mail Delivery Subsystem" and have a subject line that reads "Returned mail: see transcript for details."
If you receive a bounced message, you may want to check the e-mail address you sent the message to and make sure it was typed correctly. If the address is correct, it may help to read the body of the bounced message for more details. The transcript may say something like "User quota over limit," which means the recipient has reached his or her e-mail quota and must delete some messages and/or attachments in order to receive new mail. If this is the case, you may want to call the person or use an alternative e-mail address to let the person know he or she has some Inbox maintenance to do.
2. Restarting a Computer
The term "bounce" can also describe the process of rebooting or restarting a computer. For example, a workstation may need to be bounced after installing new software. Similarly, a Web server may be bounced if websites hosted on the server are not responding correctly.
3. Exporting Audio
"Bounce" can also describe the process of exporting several tracks in an audio mix to one mono track or two stereo tracks. This helps consolidate audio tracks after they have been mixed. Bouncing audio tracks limits the need for processing power since the computer only has to process one track instead of all the tracks individually. Digital Performer is the primary audio software program that uses bouncing to export audio.
4. Hiding a Network Connection
Finally, "bouncing" can also be used in networking to describe a method of hiding the source of a user's network connection. This type of bouncing is often abbreviated "BNC." Someone who bounces his network connection is called a "bouncer," though this is not the same person who checks your ID at the bar.
Botnet
A botnet is a group of computers that are controlled from a single source and run related software programs and scripts. While botnets can be used for distributed computing purposes, such as a scientific processing, the term usually refers to multiple computers that have been infected with malicious software.
In order to create a malicious botnet, a hacker must first compromise several computers. This might be done by exploiting a security hole through a Web browser, IRC chat program, or a computer's operating system. For example, if a user has turned off the default firewall settings, his or her computer may be susceptible to such a botnet attack. Once the hacker has gained access to several computers, he can run automated programs or "bots" on all the systems at the same time.
A hacker may create a botnet for several different purposes, such as spreading viruses, sending e-mail spam, or crashing Web servers using a denial of service attack. Botnets can range from only a few computers to several thousand machines. While large botnets can cause the most damage, they are also easiest to locate and break apart. The unusual amount of bandwidth used by large botnets may trigger an alert at one or more ISPs, which might lead to the discovery and dismantling of the botnet.
In most situations, users do not know that their computers have become part of a botnet. This is because hackers typically hide their intrusion by masking the activity within regular processes, similar to a rootkit attack. Therefore, it is a good idea to install antivirus or anti-malware software that regularly checks for such intrusions on your computer. It is also wise to make sure your system firewall is turned on, which is usually the default setting.
Broadband
This refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most common types of Internet broadband connections are cable modems (which use the same connection as cable TV) and DSL modems (which use your existing phone line). Because of its multiple channel capacity, broadband has started to replace baseband, the single-channel technology originally used in most computer networks. So now when you see companies like AT&T and SBC pushing those fancy "broadband" ads in your face, you'll at least know what they are talking about.
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