A means of accessing a computer which bypasses the normal access control system. This method can be attained through a Trojan Horse to give a Hacker access and control to the computer.

A Back-up is a copy of your files. Basically, if anything critical happened to your computer, a back-up can rescue the file back to the date and time the backup was taken. How important is it to backup? Extremely! It is not just in the event of technical problems (such as hard drive failure) that you may need to rely on a backup. Other factors could be fire, flood or theft.

A method that some mail filters use to determine if an email is spam or not. It is a statistical approach that uses the Bayesian probability theory.

Stands for Basic Input / Output System. This is a fundamental part of any computer that links with your Operating System. The BIOS 'talks' to your computer, telling them which drives are available and the location of them, and also holds all the date and time settings of your computer.

A published list of email addresses known to be sources of spam. Beneficial to companies to automatically block these addresses in their mail systems. See also Real-Time Blackhole List.

A list of email addresses and domains that no email will be accepted from.

Bluetooth is a method of wireless connection for devices in close proximity. Bluetooth operates on a short range radio signal which carries data from one source to another. Many modern mobile phones have Bluetooth as a feature, aswell as laptops and digital cameras. A fantastic way of cutting down on lots of cables, however large files such as music or movie clips would transfer faster on a cable connection.

A file with the suffix .bmp is a picture. Bmp is an abbreviation of Bitmap, and is used by Windows. It is the only file that actually increases in file size when compressed, making it a bit awkward to store and display. It is still widely used though. See also JPG and GIF.

This is a part of any computer. The boot sector is read in to the memory from the hard disc when the computer is first switched on, and in turn loads the rest of the Operating System.

A type of Virus that affects the Boot Sector, often causing the computer to not load the Operating System.

The process of loading the Operating System when the computer is switched on.

Broadband is a type of internet connection that is or exceeds 512kb per second.

A Browser is a program that allows you to visit pages on the internet. The browser interprets the code on a webpage and displays the images and text as they are meant to be seen. The commonest browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer, although other browsers include Firefox, Opera, Netscape and Avant.

A Bug is a problem (usually) with a program on your computer. The term is rumoured to be named after a moth that flew into the Havard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator - an early computer - causing it to crash. The deceased moth was taped in to the error log book, and so the computer bug was born. However, the term had been used earlier in World War 2 to describe problems with early radar.