>The larger question is, as a developer, should I make it my responsibility to develop applications so robust that they will function on a badly maintained network?

You can certainly try, but there's no way you can anticipate ALL the happy things that networks can/will do to your system (remembering some of the most interesting questions I have posed to this forum).

You should work as closely with the network support personnel as you can, after all yer both in the battle together, and you would just be AMAZED how cooperative NSS's can be when you come at them with the attitude "How are we gonna solve this problem" versus "Your network is cratering my system"

my opinion, for what it's worth.

"You don't manage people. You manage things - people you lead" Adm. Grace Hopper
Pflugerville, between a Rock and a Weird Place