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universal naming convention (UNC)

A naming convention for files that provides a machine-independent means of locating the file. A UNC name will usually include a reference to a shared folder and file accessible over a network rather than a folder and file specified by a drive letter and path. For example, the UNC name for a database named Northwind.mdb on a shared directory named Samples on a computer called MyWorkstation would be \\MyWorkstation\Samples\Northwind.mdb.

The UNC is particularly useful in Web-based applications because it allows you to reference data that is not necessarily stored on a particular Web server.