One of the most revolutionary new features introduced in Sage 50 U.S. Release 2021.0 is the ability, when installing the program in a network environment, to use the standard Universal Naming Convention (UNC) to access the data from the workstation to the server. This is a feature that has often been requested by IT professionals and Network Administrators, and Sage 50 Release 2021 has made this a reality!
What is UNC, and what will it do for me?
UNC is a standard file format to specify resources or peripheral devices in a network environment, such as files, folders, or printers. You’ve probably seen UNC paths before in Windows network environments; it is the type of path that begins with \\ followed by a computer name, shared folder, and file name.
This improvement will allow a workstation:
- To connect manually by either a server name or the IP address without a mapped drive
- To connect automatically with our Easier Network Installer Manager using a UNC instead of a mapped drive
Formatting Examples
For Release 2021.0, the UNC format is written in to reference the Sage 50 data path. The default Sage 50 data path on the server is C:\Sage\Peachtree\Company, in which the Peachtree folder is shared, and all Sage 50 data path files are located inside the folder Company.
A default UNC format follows this example: \\Servername or IPAddress\ShareFolderName\Path
Examples:
- \\ServerName\Peachtree\Company\
- \\10.123.111.123\ Peachtree\Company\
Benefits
- Allows operating systems to access specific resources efficiently
- Simplifies network installation
- Reduces time required to map network drives and troubleshooting
- Consistent network configurations on all workstations
- Eliminates issues where workstations are mapped drives point to different shared folders on the network
For more information, please visit our Sage Knowledgebase and refer to the following articles:
- Article 105950: How do I install using UNC paths in Release 2021 and later?
- Article 12029: How to install on a workstation on a network