>>The string that Maya (I think) gave you, viz.
>>\\fb_server\d:\path_to\database

Nooooo, not me!

I did miss an extra '\' that Oscar had in there, which Vlad (I think) picked up on, and pointed out.

Oscar, are you aware you can also use the IP address in place of the server name, eg.

192.168.0.1:d:\path_to\database.fdb

That should get around not being able to ping fb_server, but even it if works, you'll probably want to sort out why fb_server is not working.