In the internet protocol suite, unreliable or best effort protocols do not guarantee delivery of data Any retransmission that is needed is left to upper layers
dangerously unstable and unpredictable; "treacherous winding roads"; "an unreliable trestle"
not worthy of reliance or trust; "in the early 1950s computers were large and expensive and unreliable"; "an undependable assistant" lacking a sense of responsibility
In the TCP/IP sense of the term, a protocol which does not perform error correction (relying on "upper" layers to detect and correct errors, usually through retransmission)
This term is used to mean that a protocol or service does not provide error-checking or data-recovery mechanisms
If you describe a person, machine, or method as unreliable, you mean that you cannot trust them. Diplomats can be a notoriously unreliable and misleading source of information He had an unreliable car. reliable + unreliability un·re·li·abil·ity his lateness and unreliability. unable to be trusted or depended on