406 for work ? what do you do with yours?

[molineuxpug]

Hello all, was just wondering who uses their car for work and what work do you do in it ? Im looking for work currently and i would love to use my 406 to earn extra cash part time. any ideas and advice -- what to steer clear of etc would be appreciated . I have a 406 hdi rapier in good nick . cheers

[highlander]

I don't really use mine to earn money, directly, but I was told I needed to have a car and a full clean drivers' license in order to get my current job (I'm a network engineer).

At the drop of a hat, I might have to jump in the car and drive from Aberdeen to Arbroath, Montrose, or Livingston (haven't made that last trip yet though).

The 406 comes in handy because I can take a surprisingly large amount of network equipment in it - and mine's a saloon.

During our recent building move, at one point, I had the following in my boot:

8x Cisco Catalyst 2950 Series switches (1U each)
4x Cisco C2651XM routers (1U each)
a large box of RJ-45 patch leads
a smaller box of PDUs, multi-way power strips, and some male-to-female kettle-style power cables

and in the back seat, I had two Cisco Catalyst 4006 chassis switches, plus another box of patch cabling.

That's more than enough to build a decent enough network (though this is older kit we keep on hand for spares).

I worked out that during that trip, my cargo (when it was new) was worth more than the car was (when it was new).

[mjb]

Heh Like to see you get a 6509 in the back

I do pretty much the same thing with regard to driving for work. A couple of times a year I need to visit a datacentre to either put stuff in or to fix stuff as a result of a 3am text message saying everything's broken I try to get other people to go when possible though and just go myself when the sky's falling down

The trouble with the saloon and coupe is you really can't get a 2U server into the car in its box unless you shove it sidewards across the back seat Even 1U server boxes are troublesome. You should see the amount of stuff I got into the back of the Golf the other day though - 3x 3U disk shelves IN BOXES, a 2U server in its box, boxed rail kits for the above, a big box of cables, and a couple of loose 2950s... and there was still room to get it all in twice again. Does a damn good impression of an estate that thing Can't fit a mattress flat in the back though, unlike like the godly 406 estate

[highlander]

I had a 6509 in the back of my old Clio

The 4006 isn't too dissimilar in size to the 6509, though, so I'm sure I could persuade it. They are a lot heavier though (even fully depopulated, the chassis weighs more than I think it should)

Fun fact - for the chassis of a 6509-VE (with no active components, just the switching backplane), it'll set you back £6,500. If you actually want it to do anything (i.e. power on), then you need to spend many thousands of pounds more.

I need to move one of those reasonably soon, so I'll let you know how that goes.

[mjb]

Yeah, IIRC the PSUs are well over a grand each, a 6516 is a few k, a 6548 is about 1.5k and supervisors are utterly hideous - something like 30k each for sup720s that support EoMPLS, then you've got licensing costs on top of that

Doubt you'll get one in a 406 saloon though If memory serves the 4006 chassis is only about 12" deep and 10U high, and the 6509 is something like 20" deep and 18U high.

Hey at least it's not a 12016

[highlander]

Might just sit it in the front passenger seat then, and strap the seatbelt on it

It's not a 6509-VE I need to shift, and I'm glad of it - the -VE is taller and heavier than the original 6509 chassis.

You may or may not believe it, but we've actually got 12x 6509 systems, of which 8 are required in our new building. We use chassis pairs, for redundancy. 2x original chassis 6509s handle the connections to our wiring closets (where we have 5x stacked 3750 units with PoE). Another 2x original chassis 6509s handle our inbound MAN connections to other buildings around the industrial estate. Then we have 2x 6509-VE units for our servers to connect to, and another 2x 6509-VE units for our core.

Each chassis has dual PSU. All but the LAN chassis have redundant supervisor modules, and duplicated line cards. Each uplink has a redundant backup. And the whole datacentre has two independent phases (each phase has its own UPS, with failure to pass-through mode, and both UPS units are backed up to one massive diesel generator). Because we have two phases, each chassis in a pair is powered from a different phase.

Oh yeah - the 4x remaining 6509s are original chassis. They're all about 10 years old, and are spares.

Sorry to have dragged this one away from topic a bit, but I love working with networks and talking about hardware

[turbolag]

My 407 has some modifications to help me in my work, although no sooner did the garage fit them that I changed roles and the kit is kinda redundant. Still, it'd look good if ever I went to a cruise one night! I think you can guess without me spelling it out.

I'm also a RAYNET volunteer, so the 407 is kitted with UK & EU CB, as well is 2m and 70cm radio, along with food, water, bedroll, shovel, GPS (geo GPS as well as the more conventional twat nav) etc.

[steve_earwig]

I got a fridge

[turbolag]

For transporting transplant organs?

[steve_earwig]

Nah, it was a response to all the "hauling masses of electronics about" stuff. I didn't see your post until just now.

Anyway, what do I do with mine? I worry, of course

[DaiRees]

I also don't earn money directly from the car but need a car for work. I'm usually lugging a boot full of files and books and other "training material" stuff such as a computer, projector, screen, flipcharts etc.,

[Welly]

flipcharts

Don't forget the long pointy stick for pointing at said flipchart

[teamster1975]

flipcharts

Don't forget the long pointy stick for pointing at said flipchart

That'll be the car aerial!

[Welly]

I bet he uses a left over piece of that blingy chrome stuff

[turbolag]

Allow me to translate:

I"training material" ,

= Porn