Dear LPG,

I am wondering if I am the only really ignorant person on the planet.  My computer knowledge is coming together slowly but every now and then, when I am having a computer-orientated conversation with one of the younger and more computer literate members of my family, they will throw in a word or phrase that completely goes over my head.

This happened to me recently when my granddaughter kept adding the word ‘USB’ into what we were saying.  We were talking about memory sticks and while I know what they are I really did not understand why the term USB kept coming up.  She did try to explain but I am none the wiser, so can I ask you to explain what it is. 

KE, Lewisham

We think the easiest way to explain a USB is to compare it to an electric plug in your home. USB stands for ‘Universal Serial Bus’   and describes one of the ways to get information in and out of your computer.  They are basically the ‘wired’ way to transfer information or power from one device to another.  There were many ways to do this before, but in 1994 most of the big companies got together and decided that there should be one ‘universal’ way that works for everyone. 

In the same way that, when you buy any electrical appliance in the UK, you can be sure that you will be able to plug it into any electrical socket in your home, you can put a USB connector into any USB socket on a computer, lap top, mobile smart phone or tablet with the same result.  Apart from many Apple or I phone products, which often have their own parallel system, nearly every computer device will have a USB port somewhere.  If you have a reasonably new smart phone you most probably use a USB cable to charge it.  If you have a relatively new phone and charger, it most probably has a lead that can be detached from the plug so that you can connect it to a computer.

Like everything else in the computer world, they have become smaller over time and now come in three basic sizes.  So, depending on the age of your computerised gadget you are most likely to have a USB connector, a USB mini connection or the even smaller USB Mini-B, but you can buy converters quite cheaply in the same way that you can get electric converters for electrical appliances. 

There is one other word that may come up when talking about USB connections and that is the word ‘Hub’.  A hub is the virtual version of an electrical double-socket.  In the real world a double socket allows the connection of more than one electrical appliance to be attached to the supply while a hub will do the same if you need multi-connections with your computers.     

We hope that this explanation helps.

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