9.5 Was That Trip Really Necessary?

Our quick UNC tour provided an introduction to some of the basic concepts and annoyances of SMB. We will expand upon those ideas as we dig more deeply into the protocol. The UNC format itself is also important for a variety of reasons, both historical and practical. Not least among these is that UNC strings are used within some of the SMB messages that cross the wire.

The SMB URL format is equally significant. It is portable, flexible, and gaining in popularity. It will also form the basis for examples given later in the text. If you are implementing an SMB client, you will most likely want to have some convention for identifying resources. You could invent your own, or use UNC, but the SMB URL is probably your best option.