Warning: fiber vs copper on that 300ft run at the old mill site

Took a job rewiring a warehouse near the docks and had to pick between pulling cat6 or running a pre-terminated fiber line. The client said the budget only covered copper, but I knew the electrical noise from the old motors would kill the signal. I fought for the fiber, paid the $200 difference out of pocket on that job, and it saved me from a callback every other month. Anyone else eat the cost just to avoid the headache of a bad install?

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wendyprice2d ago

Man my buddy runs a small IT shop and he did basically the same thing on a warehouse job last year. Client insisted on copper for like 250 feet across a shop floor with those big welders and plasma cutters running all day. He tried grounding everything, shielded cable, the works. Still got packet loss like crazy whenever they fired up the machines. He ended up eating about $150 to swap to fiber himself just to keep his sanity. Told me he'd rather lose money upfront than drive back there at 7pm on a Friday to swap a switch that wasnt even the problem.