Article ID: 105514
Article Last Modified on 5/6/2003
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Access 1.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Access 1.1 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Access 2.0 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q105514
Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.
SYMPTOMS
If you attempt to use a universal naming convention (UNC) path in Microsoft Access in which the server name is longer than 10 characters or contains spaces, you get the following error message
even though valid UNC server names can be up to 15 characters and can contain spaces.
For example, the path
SystemDB=\\s234567890\ANYSHARE\SYSTEM.MDA
works correctly, but the following UNC paths cause the above error message to appear:
SystemDB=\\s2345678901\ANYSHARE\SYSTEM.MDA SystemDB=\\s2345 7890\ANYSHARE\SYSTEM.MDA
CAUSE
This problem is not caused directly by Microsoft Access, but rather by an external host, such as Microsoft Windows for Workgroups, or by a network problem. Microsoft Access does not parse UNC paths; it hands them off to external processes.
RESOLUTION
One way to work around this problem is to connect the server to a logical drive before using Microsoft Access and then reference the logical drive instead of the server.
For example, you want to use a server named \\MY SERVER\MYSHARE, and you are using Microsoft LAN Manager. To reference this server, type:
NET USE F: \\MY SERVER\MYSHARE
In your MSACCESS.INI file, reference it as follows:
SystemDB=F:\SYSTEM.MDA
STATUS
This behavior no longer occurs in Microsoft Access version 7.0, which can handle UNC names larger than 10 characters.
Additional query words: attaching
Keywords: kbfix kbenv kbprb KB105514