Ballpark price for network connections?

Thu Aug 5 23:31:32 PDT 2004

Quoting Alvin Oga (alvin at Mail.Linux-Consulting.com):
> On Tue, 3 Aug 2004, Jim Hickstein wrote:
> > --On Tuesday, August 3, 2004 12:34 -0700 "Paul M. Moriarty" <pmm at igtc.com> 
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > I need 10 new network drops in my work offices.  I'm being quoted
> > > $100/drop.  It's been a while since I've done this.  Is this a good
> > > price?  If not, anybody you'd recopmmend?
> 
> presumably, you want the outlets in the wall
> and/or in the cubicle/partition separators ?? 
> 
> - 8 port netgear hub/switch for 4 people in the 4 cubes works good too
>   which means you drag 1 wire up instead of 8 ( 2 ports per person )

Not really.  I had a client who has a 4'x4' box full of 4 and 6
port hubs.  They were ALL OVER.  And their network management
and quality was utter crap.  Framing starts to slip as you
chain the 5th mediocre hub along the line.

Debugging is shot to hell (yeah, it's on the 2900's port 5, but
that represents 15 machines).

After a couple years of their networks being just USELESS every
several weeks, they hired a networking company to come in and deal
with pulling loads of cable to each office and running huge patch
panels every couple floors.  Hell, I'm looking at an outlet in
my TV room that has 4 CAT5's in use (oh, like YOU all don't need
3 serial ports into your TV room?)

> i'd add explicitly into their PO :
> 	- if they have to come back to fix the wires, that they
> 	do so at their own expenses

Yes.  But they're going to have limits.  You're job is to make sure
that they to the testing you need before they leave when it's all
done (not just before the stuff is put into patch panels, not before
the outlets are screwed down).

> 	- make sure its real cat-5  or better cable vs "cheap stuff"

And cat5 wire is meaningless unless they test it (not just continuity)
to be rated as CAT5e.  It's easy to twist CAT5 to much or wrap it
around a corner too tight and make it no longer CAT5.  (that's one
of the serial ports ;)