title: Python: Accessing Windows mapped network drive with known URL, but unknown drive letter
body: <p>I am trying to write a Python script that can move and copy files on a remote Linux server. However, I can't assume that everyone running the script (on Windows) will have mapped this server to the same letter. Rather than prompting users for the correct letter, I want to simply access the server by its network URL, the one that the drive letter is mapped to. So, for instance, if I have mapped the server's URL</p>
  
  <pre><code>\\name-of-machine.site.company.com
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>To be drive S:\, I want to access, say, the file S:\var\SomeFile.txt in a drive-letter agnostic manner. I have looked around and the general recommendation seems to be to use UNC notation:</p>
  
  <pre><code>f = open(r"\\name-of-machine.site.company.com\var\SomeFile.txt", "w")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But if I try this, an IOError saying there is no such file or directory. If I try using the server's IP address instead (not the real address, but similar):</p>
  
  <pre><code>f = open(r"\\10.1.123.149\var\SomeFile.txt", "w")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get, after a long pause, an IO Error: "invalid mode ('w') or filename". Why are these notations not working, and how can I access this server (ideally as if it were a local drive) by its URL?</p>