Going rate....?

Is this a side gig or a primary source of income? They sound a bit clueless, since $300 won't buy much of what they want to even use. Maybe they need some negotiation.
Call them and pitch the rate you normally use - cause I would think all they will get with that is someone in school needing money. Let them know they may end up paying much more to have someone get it working right.

As far as I can tell, the going rate for consulting and setting things up is $80/hour at least (depends on the person... if I was doing consulting on the side I'd charge a lot less). Maybe if it was a side deal... I mean $300 for one day's work is nothing to scoff at.

I'd like to get all that done in one day, and only pay $300. Around $100. to just show up with
$100. an hour with a one hour minimum. To just
questimate would be 3 twelve hour days, preferably a long weekend, and you'll need a bunch of spares. Is this all NEW or a retrofit?
How many desktops?? What wiring is in place??
So many open ended problems will abound and
I'll bet you'd have more than a few.

If I were quoting this job blind around here, (which happens more often than I care to mention)
I would give the following:
1) Configure server (With proper testing)16 hours
2) Set Up network... (kind of obscure what they mean by this... 4 hours for the nast seprise when I find out what they really mean by this
3) Configure router... 5 minutes?
4) Rewire Data cables... 1 hour per run (some go fast, some become nightmares
5. Set up desktops with identical images. (if this is just replicated roving profiles.. part of 1, if replicated drives, 2 hours for initial image, then 1/2 an hour per replicated mirror.

Overall we are probably looking at a 3 day job +/- at a standard rate for my services of $95 per hour for about $2300 in labor.
Plus if out of town, it would also include travel and accomedation expenses as well as a per dium for a total bill in the neighbourhood of $3000.

To put it bluntly, in my mind they are of by about a factor of 10.

I was only pointing out how little was being offered in comparison.

$300 is enough to get a quote on the job mentioned. ]:)

They would be lucky to have pre-configured systems installed in a day for $300.

I agree on your figures that it should be a flat rate of $75 an hour. If they get someone in to set it up for that rate, it will take much longer than 1 day.

For that type of work as most of it is [b]Security Related[/b]

If you are pulling cable you'll need to have the proper certifications depending on where it is you live not to mention enough insurance to cover any possible legal action bought against you for doing sloppy work.

Forget about the day though as it's not possible maybe over an entire long weekend if you work 16 + hours per day you might get it done properly.

I can understand why they want it done so fast but honestly unless it was originally properly setup and all that is required is running some cable in a new premises it will take much longer than just 1 day.

I would allow that long to pull the cable safely and mount it properly and to the standards required here. But maybe those standards don't apply where you are and you can have fly leads all over the floor like I do for an initial installation of a relocated network before I make the connections on the cable pulled through the building and even then I only do that if there is no one about and I don't have to worry about insurance claims against me for injuries when some ID10T trips over a cable. Of course if you have a cable tester you wouldn't have to do this unless you get one of those [b]trouble[/b] cable runs.

Recently I had to pull 4 runs of CAT5 cable and that took 4 hours even though there was limited access underneath the building I still had to staple the cable up so it wasn't hanging down and getting caught by anyone crawling under the building. On that Job I only used about 150 Meters of CAT cable.

The [b]Day[/b] is possible but you'll need at least 2-3 others to get it all done properly and even then it will be a rush job. You would really need 1 on the Server, 1 on the Duplicating Desktops and even then all the hardware would have to be identical, 1 for the Wireless connection to lock down properly and allow access to those who need it and when they are finished that they could help with the cable and 1 pulling the cable with help as and when people become available. Then you would need all these people to setup the desktops properly as I'm sure that they will not want all e-mail going to just one desktop as well as establishing the Domain and AD as required. Not to mention any Group Policies that will be required.

That's for a sight unseen job it may take less time to pull the cable and it might take longer it all depends on the building and how big it is and more importantly how easy it is to get into the guts of. Of course you could always run that Square plastic along the bottom of the walls but it's not cheap and if the $300.00 also covers materials that would make a large hole in your income.

Col

$75 an hour for this scope of work is still low, but a lot more reasonable than a flat $300. The person that posted $300 has no idea what he is asking, or is just trying to get something for nothing.

I think it is kind of ridiculous that he is willing to pay about $1000 for a server operating system plus the other expenditures but is only willing to pay a person $300 to install and essentially set up an office's network infrastructure.

you won't do it that cheap, but if they find someone that cheap, you'll fix it for $100 an hour :)

Shirtbird,

Most of the companies that would post insulting material like that are looking for weekend wire jockeys that know nothing more than putting a square peg in a round hole. $300 is not even enough to get me to do the paperwork to write up a quote for that service. Seriously that is probably a two to three day job minimum, and I would not think of charging any less than $3,000!

These morons have no idea the costs of the education, training and equipment required to handle networking tasks. Actually they probably do know, and just do not care. For $300 they are going to get someone who is going to totally mess up their system, and they will not even get the $300!!

My advice, send that guy an email telling him his offer is missing at least a zero on the right end of it and probably needs to have a 4 at the start of it. That or just tell him to get a clue.

Do not be stupid and deal with a crook like that. He is taking advantage of anyone who agree to even walk in the door to look at his system for that.

Good luck and take care

Rich