>>My advice to Dimity is - find an excellent network person.
>
>Good to have one on your list - alternative is to make client pay for all work caused by his network issues.

I do both. That's how (and a lot of TLC) I keep the networker happy.
This is just one example of non-programming issues that would drive me batty if I didn't have that guy. Printing is probably the worst offender, followed by hiccups with remote connections.
It's great to be able to forget about those things and concentrate on application programming because that networker is just about infallible.

Technology also helps.
Every time I do a SQL backup and I notice that Microsoft has not changed the default medium from "Tape" I remember the hours frittered away on tape devices.
I haven't seen one in so long I forget what they look like, but they were another source of grief.