Easter Egg - A hidden suprise in a program or on a Web site. A special feature that is not otherwise made obvious but when "discovered" or "clicked on" offers something special. This could be in the form of an extra game level or secret area or animation or a message of some kind. Programmers often "bury" easter eggs in their programs to add a certain extra depth to their program or Web site and to challenge users to find it.

Echomail - Public Message Conferences on a Bulletin Board System which are shared and distributed among other Bulletin Boards as part of an Echomail Network.

E-Commerce - (Electronic Commerce or EC) The buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. This term, along with “E-business” and “ E-tailing” are often used interchangeably.

E-Mail (Electronic Mail) - Short for electronic mail, this is a system that lets people send and receive messages via their computers. The system might be on a large network (such as the Internet), on a bulletin board, or over a company’s own office network.

Emoticon - A combination of characters that form a facial expression. For example, if you turn your head sideways, the characters :) make a smiley face, and the characters 8) make a four-eyed smiley. Frequently used in email messages to convey a particular tone. If you wanted to jokingly insult somebody, without starting a flame war, you could write, "I think you are a total loser :)".

Encrypt - To encode data so that only someone or a program with a secret key can read it.

Ergonomics - (From Greek, "the study of work.") The science of designing working environments and the tools in them for maximum work efficiency and maximum worker health and safety.An ergonomically designed workplace has proper light to reduce eyestrain, chairs that support good posture, lowest possible exposure of workers to undesirable radiations, etc.

Error Control Protocols - These are various modem-based techniques which check the reliability of characters or blocks of data at a hardware level. Examples include MNP 2-4, V.42

Ethernet - the most common technology for connecting computers together in a network.

Exit - To leave the mode or program the computer is in.

Export - To convert a file from one application format to another, or to move data out of one file with the purpose of importing it into another file.

Extranet - The connecting of two or more intranets. If you think of an intranet as a company's internal Web site which allows users inside the company to communicate and exchange information, now imagine connecting that virtual space with another company's intranet, thus allowing these two (or more) companies to share resources and communicate over the Internet in their own virtual space. This technology greatly enhances business to business communications.