What is UNC?

Universal Naming Convention (UNC), also called Uniform Naming Convention, is a NetBIOS naming format for identifying and specifying the location of servers, printers, and other resources on a local area network (LAN). Almost all LANs for PCs are based on NetBIOS, making a NetBIOS naming format an easy and compatible way to access files and resources across a network.

UNC names begin with \\ (two backslashes) and take the form:

For example, a share named Chips on a computer named Potato will have the UNC name:

You can also use UNC names on Unix computers, where they originated, but you have to use forward slashes rather than backslashes, for example:

You can also use UNC to identify shared peripheral devices, such as printers. The goal of UNC is to provide a format for unique and easily remembered names to identify shared resources, so users don't need to remember an IP address to access resources.

The use of UNC names is closely related to the use of WINS to resolve NetBIOS names. WINS resolves Windows network computer names (also known as NetBIOS names) to Internet IP addresses, allowing networked Windows computers to find and communicate with each other easily.

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