UNC stands for Universal Naming Convention, a system that lets networked computers recognize each other without assigning or substituting drive letters on each local machine. We recommend UNC for users sharing client files or using Client Explorer database features on a network.
Why Use UNC File names? Each computer assigns drive letters to drives (C:, D: etc...). For example, let's say you store a client file on your network drive L:\RETURNS. If another user wants to access that file on a different workstation, the network drive may be mapped to G:\RETURNS. The shared Client Explorer will think the file is on L:\RETURNS and will deny access to the second user because ProFile can't locate the file.
The solution is to use UNC filenames; all computers have a name (In Windows XP, click on START > Settings > Control Panel > Network > Identification). If your server computer is called SERVER then the same network drive above would be known as \SERVER\RETURNS. Every computer on the network can recognize this pathname no matter what drive letter is mapped on each machine.
Get in touch with other Accountants
Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook
