A method for sending/receiving a TCP segment is provided. The sending process includes, determining if a TCP port can be offloaded; saving a host system's time stamp value; replacing a host system's time stamp value with a TCP offload engine ("TOE") adapter's time stamp value; and sending the TCP segment via the TOE adapter. The receiving process includes verifying if a TCP port is being offloaded by a host system to the TOE adpter; retrieving the host system's time stamp value; and inserting the host system's time stamp value in the received TCP segment before the forwarding the received TCP segment to the host system.