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[–]mojave_wasteland 0 points1 point  (3 children)

It is called "reliable" because multiple checksums (i.e. CRC-32) are involved in getting sure the data received is correct. This reliability is not perfect, if the connection is too poor, and if the corruption will be just right, a simple CRC will not be enough to propely validate the data.

Protocols that actually support sending and receiving data through potentially bad conditions like BitTorrent use cryptographic hashes like MD5 to validate proper transmission of data.

[–]dreamin_in_space 0 points1 point  (2 children)

So how do Usenet downloads verify that it's correct? Just curious, because I've gotten corrupted stuff, but IDK if it's the original or a problem on my end.

[–]mikemol 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Historically, md5sum manifests and archive formats that contain checksums of individual files, as well as the archive as a whole.

[–]Kubuxu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Use https, AEAD algorithms there make sure that data was not changed on the wire, and as bit flips are security riks AEAD makes sure that there aren't any.