Reply to post: Cabling.

Cabling.

Not surprised the supervisor installed it himself. Back in the day cabling cost real money and was a black art.

Once upon a time, a contractor mate in Novell picked up a job doing the setup for a very tight-fisted bunch. He was bemoaning the fact that a) he'd been screwed on his price and b) they wouldn't pay for decent cabling. He showed me the cabling quotes and said they were going for the cheapest (thinwire ethernet - yes, that long ago).

I saw the big number at the bottom and swore. I asked if they'd like the place floodwired in Cat5 for 16Mb token-ring, with a proper cabinet and patch panel next to the server, for less money. He thought they might, but how? I pointed out that I knew what I was doing and had all the tools required.

We did it over a weekend and pocketed well over half the big number at the bottom[1] between us. No wonder there was no shortage of choice in cabling contractors, the profit margins were astronomical. One of the more profitable items was the patch cables, which I made out of left over cable and crimp-on ends (10 quid for a bag of 500). It seemed cheesy to charge per cable, but I undercut the opposition by 50%, at 10 quid a pop, to salve my conscience.

[1] Even with the higher spec kit, cards and cable than the etherstring lads. They must have been really coining it.