title: Obtain the DFS path of a network location in Python
body: <p>I want to obtain a ping-like response from a Windows network location that has a Distributed File System architecture e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>path = r'\\path\to\some\shared\folder_x'
  delay = ping_func(path)
  print delay # return response in milliseconds ?
  234
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Once I have host computer I can easily ping the location.</p>
  
  <p>I can determine the host name for <code>folder_x</code> by looking at the DFS tab in the windows explorer which will look like e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>\\hostcomputer.server.uk\shared$\folder_x
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I do this programmatically in Python?</p>