Jargon Dictionary - Letter B

Bandwidth Bandwidth refers to the amount of data or information that your Internet connection can cope with. The more bandwidth you have the faster you can receive data from the Internet. A simple text-only email message doesn't need much bandwidth, but audio and video clips require a lot of bandwidth. See also: Broadband

Banner Also known as 'banner ad', an advert in the form of a graphic image, normally situated right at the top of a web page.

Baud Rate This is the technical term for the speed at which you connect to the Internet via your modem, and is measured in kbps (kilobits per second). Most modems have a maximum baud rate of 56kbps - often shortened to just 56k - but the actual connection speed may be somewhat lower because of factors such as interference on the phone lines.

Bookmark Web browsers allow you to add 'bookmarks' that store the address of your favourite Internet sites. This allows you to visit the site whenever you want to, without having to type in the site's full address each time.

Broadband A high-speed Internet connection that is much faster than an ordinary 56kbit modem. At the moment you can get a broadband connection using either cable modems or ADSL.

Browser A web browser is a program that allows you to enter and explore the World Wide Web. You are probably using a browser right now to read these Help files. Internet Explorer is the most popular browser at present and comes pre-installed on all PCs and Macintosh computers.

BT Stands for British Telecom.

BT Answer 1571 An answering service from BT that takes messages while you are away from the phone, on another call or when you are connected to the Internet.

BTW 'By the way', abbreviation used in chat or email.