Different computers can use different encodings as the default, and the default encoding can even change on a single computer. Therefore, data streamed from one computer to another or even retrieved at different times on the same computer might be translated incorrectly. In addition, the encoding returned by the Encoding.Default property uses best-fit fallback to map unsupported characters to characters supported by the code page. For these two reasons, using the default encoding is generally not recommended. To ensure that encoded bytes are decoded properly, your application should use a Unicode encoding, such as System.Text.UTF8Encoding or System.Text.UnicodeEncoding, with a preamble. Another option is to use a higher-level protocol to ensure that the same format is used for encoding and decoding.