When I did consulting, we always got unreasonable but technically not impossible asks like this. We never "fired" the customer, because that's just bad business and customer service. What we did instead was tell them their options, our recommendation, and "appropriate" billing estimates. Your job is to consult them to the best of your ability, not stop them from bad decisions despite your advice.
So, 1 hour billed for 5 minutes of downtime, or 40 if you want absolutely none. Happy to do either, but highly recommend the former. 99% of people pick the cheaper recommended option.
In this case, I would've tried to put the server on WiFi which would seem like less a hassle for me. Equipment acquisition cost billed to the customer.
Yep. Then it's either extra billable hours for you to fix the mistake you knew was going to happen, and/or the lawyers get involved and point out the mistake being requested in whatever statement of work. Even better if you called out the exact failure scenario in the risks section that you suspect they didn't read.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if they listen/understand or not, as long as you documented telling them or it makes it into some legal document and they still pay the bill.
So, 1 hour billed for 5 minutes of downtime, or 40 if you want absolutely none. Happy to do either, but highly recommend the former. 99% of people pick the cheaper recommended option.
In this case, I would've tried to put the server on WiFi which would seem like less a hassle for me. Equipment acquisition cost billed to the customer.