Disabling Checksum on Network Cards

[Maviryk]

I just disabled the Checksum on my Gigabyte onboard LAN.

The webpages are loading so much faster now!

Is there a downside to this?

[Captain Newbie]

Well, the purpose of a checksum is to make sure that the data you're accepting hasn't been altered, possibly by a malicious party, or just by random cosmic rays/EMI, in transit. Hence the term checksum...you're checking to make sure it's okay.

I'd rather have the safety feature in place, thank you very much. :)

[Tygart]

I agree, Thanks for the info.

[Maviryk]

If all the data is going through a router, doesn't that already check it?

[gorilly]

no the router simply has a firewall which will block certain ports and make sure the packets are in line

a checksum is a bit like a delivery note, you order stuff, when it comes in you check it against the delivery note to make sure its all there and correct.

or in technical terms, thanks to google: A computed value that is dependent upon the contents of a packet. This value is sent along with the packet when it is transmitted. The receiving system computes a new checksum based upon the received data and compares this value with the one sent with the packet. If the two values are the same, the receiver has a high degree of confidence that the data was received correctly.

[Maviryk]

Bah... great.. now I need to figure out how to overclock my Network Adaptor.

[dropadrop]

If it speeds up due to disabling checksums then you are definatly on thin ice. Calculating the checksum is not a heavy procedure, the reason for the worse performance is that there are packages who's checksums do not match, and they are being resent. It's the only logical explanation.

[El<(')>Maxi]

FYI Checksum settings can also cause problems. Recently had to disable tcp_offload on a Realtek Gigabit NIC so DL's comprised of .zip files on a web server I manage would not become corrupted. This NIC is not that old and has a fairly recent driver release, I'll stick to a more well know manufacturer for future purchases.