Test if Network Directory exists in Batch file (.cmd)

The default way to check whether a directory exists in a Windows batch file (.cmd) is
if not exist "%directory%\nul" (
   echo %directory% does not exist
)

However, as this MS KB explains, the check for the NUL file does not work with directories on network drives mapped to a drive letter.

A working solution I found is to process the ERRORLEVEL value a DIR command sets
dir %directory% >nul 2>nul
if errorlevel 1 (
   echo %directory does not exist
)

or
dir %directory% >nul 2>nul
if not errorlevel 1 (
    echo %directory exists
)