diff --git a/continuous_integration/README.md b/continuous_integration/README.md
index bd7c28f..11382f5 100644
--- a/continuous_integration/README.md
+++ b/continuous_integration/README.md
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ docker build -t daskdev/hdfs3dev continuous_integration/
 - Start the container and wait for it to be ready:
 
 ```bash
-source continuous_integration/startup_hdfs.sh
+source continuous_integration/setup_hdfs.sh
 ```
 
 - Start a bash session in the running container:
@@ -36,3 +36,10 @@ docker exec -it $CONTAINER_ID bash
 python setup.py install
 py.test hdfs3 -s -vv
 ```
+
+To run the tests on Python 2.7:
+
+```bash
+/opt/conda/envs/py27/bin/python setup.py install
+/opt/conda/envs/py27/bin/py.test hdfs3 -s -vv
+```
diff --git a/hdfs3/core.py b/hdfs3/core.py
index c97b9c3..b767c68 100644
--- a/hdfs3/core.py
+++ b/hdfs3/core.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class HDFileSystem(object):
     _first_pid = None
 
     def __init__(self, host=MyNone, port=MyNone, connect=True, autoconf=True,
-                 pars=None, **kwargs):
+                 pars=None, crc=True, **kwargs):
         """
         Parameters
         ----------
@@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ def __init__(self, host=MyNone, port=MyNone, connect=True, autoconf=True,
         autoconf: bool (True)
             Whether to use the configuration found in the conf module as
             the set of defaults
+        crc: bool (True)
+            Enable/disable CRC verification
         pars : {str: str}
             any parameters for hadoop, that you can find in hdfs-site.xml,
             https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/r2.6.0/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-hdfs/hdfs-default.xml
@@ -77,6 +79,8 @@ def __init__(self, host=MyNone, port=MyNone, connect=True, autoconf=True,
             self.conf['host'] = host
         if port is not MyNone:
             self.conf['port'] = port
+        if not crc:
+            self.conf['input.read.default.verify'] = '0'
 
         self._handle = None
 
diff --git a/hdfs3/tests/test_hdfs3.py b/hdfs3/tests/test_hdfs3.py
index 5b6f46d..908dab9 100644
--- a/hdfs3/tests/test_hdfs3.py
+++ b/hdfs3/tests/test_hdfs3.py
@@ -78,6 +78,31 @@ def test_idempotent_connect(hdfs):
     hdfs.connect()
 
 
+def test_disable_crc():
+    hdfs = HDFileSystem(host=test_host, port=test_port,
+                        pars={'rpc.client.connect.retry': '2'}, crc=False)
+
+    assert 'input.read.default.verify' in hdfs.conf
+
+    if hdfs.exists('/tmp/test'):
+        hdfs.rm('/tmp/test')
+    hdfs.mkdir('/tmp/test')
+
+    data = b'a' * (10 * 2**20)
+
+    with hdfs.open(a, 'wb', replication=1) as f:
+        f.write(data)
+
+    with hdfs.open(a, 'rb') as f:
+        out = f.read(len(data))
+        assert len(data) == len(out)
+        assert out == data
+
+    if hdfs.exists('/tmp/test'):
+        hdfs.rm('/tmp/test', recursive=True)
+    hdfs.disconnect()
+
+
 def test_ls_touch(hdfs):
     assert not hdfs.ls('/tmp/test')
     hdfs.touch(a)