Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)

An error-checking technique used to ensure the accuracy of transmitting digital code over a communications channel after the data is transmitted. Transmitted messages are divided into predetermined lengths that are divided by a fixed divisor. The result of this calculation is appended onto the message and sent with it. At the receiving end, the computer performs this calculation again. If the value that arrived with the data does not match the value the receiver calculated, an error has occurred during transmission.