Network file paths such as "//computer/path/to/file.php" cannot be read using PHP file access functions, or parsed by the PHP interpreter.  When attempting to parse PHP files located in remote directories the interpreter returns a warning like the following:

Warning: Failed opening '//computer/path/to/file.php' for inclusion (include_path='.') in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Failed opening '//computer/path/to/file.php' for inclusion (include_path='.') in Unknown on line 0

file.php contains

<?php echo 'test'; ?>


Attempting to access the network file using

<?php fopen('//computer/path/to/file.php','r'); ?>

returns the following warning:

Warning: fopen("//computer/path/to/file.php","r") - No such file or directory in f:/webpages/pub/a/test.php on line 1


This indicates that, while Apache is able to access this file, PHP is not able to parse it, or, in fact, access any network files in this manner.