I would have guessed the opposite. It depends on what you are walking in to.
These are some pics from a hotel LAN at a place in Tortola I was at about this time last year:
http://www.karas.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2505
Not dissimilar to the OP case here, they were having "network issues" (this was not the reason for my business there, it became a side project), and their LAN was the result of someone who knew some fundamentals but was not a network guy by any means. I could tell more from 30 seconds of looking at this stuff than what they could ever describe to me (even if they had sent pictures).
A network that spans an 18 acre campus could vary from simple to mildly complex. The terrain and budget could suggest that alternative technologies might be more appropriate (PtP Wifi, Mesh, etc.) for some of the links being served by the fiber. Perhaps there are aspects of the fiber install that would indicate future potential failures and/or inabilities to recover from those failures.
A savvy network guy could assess and communicate this, but if they HAD a savvy network guy, this whole thread would have never existed.
So, IMO, an in-person trip is probably the most resourceful way to handle this. My guess would be a 3-4 day initial session, from which some recommendations could be made. After that it could be determined if they have the time/skills to implement the recommendations, or if the implementation should also be outsourced as well.
Good points, a 'guru' on the spot can save (a lot) of time.
I've had to do some remote debugging of trouble and I found that it is quite taxing to 'talk someone through' the steps but eventually it did work.
It probably depends on how 'hands on' the issues are, if they're configuration issues or so then remote is probably ok, if they're related to physical stuff then onsite is probably much better.
These are some pics from a hotel LAN at a place in Tortola I was at about this time last year: http://www.karas.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2505 Not dissimilar to the OP case here, they were having "network issues" (this was not the reason for my business there, it became a side project), and their LAN was the result of someone who knew some fundamentals but was not a network guy by any means. I could tell more from 30 seconds of looking at this stuff than what they could ever describe to me (even if they had sent pictures).
A network that spans an 18 acre campus could vary from simple to mildly complex. The terrain and budget could suggest that alternative technologies might be more appropriate (PtP Wifi, Mesh, etc.) for some of the links being served by the fiber. Perhaps there are aspects of the fiber install that would indicate future potential failures and/or inabilities to recover from those failures.
A savvy network guy could assess and communicate this, but if they HAD a savvy network guy, this whole thread would have never existed.
So, IMO, an in-person trip is probably the most resourceful way to handle this. My guess would be a 3-4 day initial session, from which some recommendations could be made. After that it could be determined if they have the time/skills to implement the recommendations, or if the implementation should also be outsourced as well.