INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: TimB on October 08, 2004, 08:57:59 am

Title: Pros and Cons of using UNC paths
Post by: TimB on October 08, 2004, 08:57:59 am

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=-

Title: Re:Pros and Cons of using UNC paths
Post by: Shadowen on October 08, 2004, 09:02:48 am

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.

Title: Re:Pros and Cons of using UNC paths
Post by: Veazer on October 08, 2004, 11:14:01 am

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?

Title: Re:Pros and Cons of using UNC paths
Post by: Chris Shaw on October 10, 2004, 06:17:23 pm

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"