B2B and B2C = (See E-Business).

Baan = Baan Company is a leading provider of enterprise business software that enhances the processes common to
businesses of all sizes and industries.  Baan Company's commitment to continuously reducing complexity creates flexible, easy-to-integrate products and services that allow customers to adapt quickly to a dynamic competitive environment. The web Baan site is at http://www5.baan.com/cgi-bin/bvisapi.dll   .  See database.

Back-end = the final stage in a process or a task not apparent to the user. A common usage is in a compiler. A compiler's back-end generates machine language and performs optimizations specific to the machine's architecture. The term can also be used in the context of Open System Interconnect (OSI) network applications. A standard for layering of protocols (protocol stack) to implement it were was developed in 1978 as a framework for international standards in heterogeneous computer network architecture. The architecture is split between seven layers (lowest to highest):

1. physical layer
2. data link layer
3. network layer
4. transport layer
5. session layer
6. presentation layer
7. application layer

Generally each layer uses the layer immediately below it and provides a service to the layer above in a "back ended" way.

In the third generation of network computing, web servers perform back-end database computing where it's controlled and managed. But third generation computing takes advantage of the new interactive server/client interactive technology like Sun's Java andMicrosoft's Microsoft's ActiveX/CORBA. Users on the client side want to interact in various ways such as perform sensitivity (what-if) type of analyses.

Bandwidth = Capacity (range) of transmission frequencies on a network as expressed in cycles per second (hertz) or bits per second that determines the amount of data, audio, and video that can flow over the network. The higher the frequency, the higher the bandwidth. (See also Baseband, Broadband, Hertz, bps, and Information highway)

Bar codes = Alternate standards for marking products or other items for reading by laser beams. They are used extensively for locating items on videodiscs and CDs. The LaserBarCode was the original standard for CAV discs. This was extended to LaserBarCode2 for CLV discs. The Bar Code CD is an audio standard for CD discs. (See also Videodisc and CD)

Baseband = A network cable that has only one channel for carrying data signals.

Baud = A unit of speed in data transmission, or the maximum speed at which data can be sent down a channel. Baud is often equivalent to bits per second. Named after J. M. E. Baudot (died 1903). (See also bps)

BBS = Bulletin Board Systems on the Internet that provide electronic bulletin board and conferencing services. (See also CWIS and Freenets)

BeVocal = (See Speech Recognition).

BinHex = A file conversion format that converts binary files to ASCII text files.

BIOS = (See VESA)

Bit = A contraction of binary digit, a bit is the smallest unit of information that a computer can hold. Eight bits is equivalent to a byte. The speed at which bits are transmitted or bit rate is usually expressed as bits per second or bps.

BITNET = Because It's Time NETwork is an early network of academic and research professionals. Most users have shifted to e-mail gateways. (See also Internet and Networks)

Blind = (See Disabilities.)

Blog = (See Weblog)

BMP = Bitmap graphics files that are accessible through Windows Paintbrush and most other PC graphics software. (See also Compression, CGM, and JPEG)

Board = A hardware component that fits into the expansion slot of a computer unit and expands the capabilities of the computer. A board can enable the computer to communicate with an external hardware device, such as a CD-ROM. Alternate terms are card, expansion card, interface card, interface board. (See also SCSI, Sound board, Video board, and PCMCIA)

Bookmark = A user-defined place mark that enables the user to return to a particular screen or starting point after accessing related information. Bookmarks may also be used to locate sections on related topics.

bps = bits per second. This is a measure of transfer speed that is commonly used in modems. (See also Bandwidth and Baud)

Branch = Any one of the paths an application can take after it evaluates a specific condition.

Bot = a roBot that usually is a software program that can be good (administering or policing on the network) or bad (causing evil) on the network. Bots commonly are used in real audio chat lines. A WebBot are "smart objects" that can be inserted into web pages to perform tasks that otherwise would require CGI scripting or some other dynamic action programming. WebBots can help set up dynamic chat lines, time image appearances, register and confirm actions, reference annotations, perform calculations, etc. Some HTML editors can be used to create WebBots. Microsoft FrontPage, for example, can be used for:

• WebBot Confirmation Field component
• WebBot Include component
• WebBot Scheduled Image component
• WebBot Scheduled Include component
• WebBot Search component
• WebBot Substitution component
• WebBot Table of Contents component
• WebBot Timestamp component

One example of a WebBot is the people search engine at http://www.nerdworld.com/

botnets and phishing on your computer at this very moment:  Forwarded by Jagdish Gangolly
Know your Enemy: Tracking Botnets:  Using honeynets to learn more about Bots --- http://www.honeynet.org/papers/bots/
The Honeynet Project & Research Alliance http://www.honeynet.org 
Last Modified: 13 March 2005

Honeypots are a well known technique for discovering the tools, tactics, and motives of attackers. In this paper we look at a special kind of threat: the individuals and organizations who run botnets. A botnet is a network of compromised machines that can be remotely controlled by an attacker. Due to their immense size (tens of thousands of systems can be linked together), they pose a severe threat to the community. With the help of honeynets we can observe the people who run botnets - a task that is difficult using other techniques. Due to the wealth of data logged, it is possible to reconstruct the actions of attackers, the tools they use, and study them in detail. In this paper we take a closer look at botnets, common attack techniques, and the individuals involved.

Bridge = A device that connects different LANs so a node on one LAN can communicate with a node on another LAN.

Broadband = Network transmission capacity that greatly exceeds capacity required for voice transmission over traditional telephone cables. Broadband networks may have dedicated portions for audio, video, and data or they may allow for capacity switching. (See also Bandwidth, Information highway, Switched network, Networks, and ATM)

Broadcasting = (See webcasting.)

Browser = A type of software that allows you to navigate information databases; examples are Netscape Navigator and NCSA Mosaic.

Browsers = (See Web browsers)

BSP = (See ASP)

Buffer underrun = A common error where the data stream being fed from the CD-R's cache buffer falls behind the laser doing the writing. (See also CD-R)

Bulletin Boards = (See  e-mail )

Bus = The internal pathways (data bus, address bus, and control bus) of wires connecting various parts of a computer. Common standards for buses were Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) 16-bit bus common in AT-compatible PCs, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) 32-bit buses in IBM PS/2 computers, and Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) 32-bit buses that are backward compatible with ISA adapters. An "expansion bus" is an extension of the data bus and address bus that includes slots for adapter boards. It is better than ISA and EISA for hypermedia authoring to also purchase a "local bus" system in 32-bit or higher capacity with eight or more expansion slots for multimedia options. A local bus connects the CPU with peripherals directly so as to improve performance speed. However, in recent years, the VL local buses are not as good as the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) brainchild of Intel. The term "bus" can also apply to standards for connecting electronic components other than computer components. The term CDBus or consumer electronics bus refers to a home or office automation standard such that components connected through power lines, coaxial cable, infrared connections, and telephone lines will be mutually compatible. (See also VL-Bus and Cache)

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is the common bus used on PCs.  It is a relatively slow hardware bus an is a small fraction of the speed of FireWire.  The term "FireWire" is the early name given to High Performance Serial Bus.A serial bus developed by Apple Computer and Texas Instruments (IEEE 1394).The High Performance Serial Bus can connect up to 63 devices in a tree-like daisy chain configuration, and transmit data at up to 400 megabits per second.It supports plug and play and peer-to-peer communication between peripheral devices.Wintel (Intel and Microsoft) were spooked by the speed of FireWire and developed new PCs called Easy PCs that use only USB and FireWire in machines that will no longer have the familiar parallel and serial ports.

Bus topology = A physical layout of a LAN where all nodes are connected to a single cable.

Byte = The number of bits used to represent a character.

Bytes = Grouping of eight bits. While a bit can assume only two states, 0 and 1, a byte can store from 0 up to 255 different states. Most of the time a character is stored in a byte. Therefore, a byte can store up to 255 different characters. The standard ASCII character set consists of 128 characters; the additional characters generally used in PC software brings the total number of characters up to 255.