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[TimB]

I see them mentioned from time to time here so what ARE UNC paths and what are the pros and cons of using them?

Thanks!

-=Tim=-

[Shadowen]

A UNC path is a way to point to a network share without using a drive letter.

\\hostname\sharename

The advantage is that you don't need to use a drive letter.

The disadvatage is that host name or share name changes require updating the UNC path.

[Veazer]

Another problem I have seen is reduced performance when a machine is accessing its own shares via UNC. For example, on one of my Win2K machines if I try to play a divx .avi it will play fine if the location is specified via drive letter & path but it stutters & skips like crazy if the same file is loaded using UNC. If I put the file on another machine on the network and use UNC it works fine.

Anyone else notice problems like this?

[Chris Shaw]

No, this works fine for me. I access all my AVI's via local UNC paths.

Advantages:
You can access a file the same way from anywhere on the network. This makes your library more portable.

Disadvantages:
Everything looks like a network drive so you can't do "Send to recycle bin"