Conferences are bulletin boards on a telecommunication system that are labeled for specific topics. A number of conferences might be available on a typical BBS, and users may select those in which they are interested. Connect time is amount of time a computer is connected to a telecommunications service, such as a BBS or an online database. Charges are often based on connect time. Data bits are the number of bits used to define one character of information during telecommunications .
Most systems use eight data bits to define each character.
Telecommunications software has a menu selection to set data bits. A dedicated telephone line is a normal telephone that is used for nothing but telecommunications. This reduces the likelihood that someone will pick up an extension or otherwise interrupt while the modem is online. Normally the system does not allow any other activity while the file is being trnasferred. Contrasts with capture, where just the text of the session is saved to a disk.