>>I've been using mapped drives, NetBIOS-style UNC addresses and IPv4-style addresses for many years and know they can usually be made to work.
A couple of years back, we began recommending UNC paths rather than mapped drives because Windows 10 appears to "poll" mapped drives, momentarily disconnecting and reconnecting which causes chaos if you've a Word document or app open on the server. However, a quick DuckDuckGo search today no longer finds pages of alarmed reports, so maybe they've since fixed it.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
