[Weldûn]

Never punish your players for a good plan!

This is really important. If your players managed to think their way around the problem, consider how much table time they spent doing it. If they examined numerous possible outcomes, planned for them, planned for their plans fouling up, and then neatly side-stepped the challenge, let them have it. They put in the effort, just not in a fashion that is typical. In my game, I and two of my players have been playing since ^1st edition. We know almost every trick in the book and a huge amount that aren't in the book. My other two players have each been playing since 2nd edition and early 3rd edition respectively.

That being said, one way that I threw my players on a heist was that their surveillance hadn't noticed that there was a large basement in an electronics store that they were robbing. They knew that a local gang with a strong wolf-motif owned it as a front, but they strangely could learn very little about it's matrix systems. So, when they hit it, they were surprised when over a dozen large, healthy canines were set loose on them, by the e-dog in residence, who then just kept summoning sprites to crash all the strange nodes that were in it's territory. Given that I had an extra player at the time, who had served in the Marine Corp, Force Recon, I also had the pleasure of him hearing about the dogs and then turning to me and swearing at me. Seriously, sometimes you just have to throw normal animals at the PC with a little assist from some Sixth World aspect. Kinda like in DnD where a 4th level party will face Ogres and the like with little difficulty, but one wild Boar and you barely avoid a TPK.

[Fnord]

so i ran a game yesterday, prolly the best game i have run the whole game.  my real problem is before they were going against mooks, with  a few solo or x2 boss fights.

     so in last nights game they hit up a lab (i used the color map from the dm screen box set) and the companys parent company had a security detail droped off.  the corp was aware of there run.

     4 company men of equal stats to my 5 man party showed up. it was rought just getting in. they played 3+ hours and made it 1/2 threw the run before 12:00, i had to call it

    but they wanted to keep going.                            thanks for all the advice, Phil

It sounds like you are throwing straight combat challenges at them. While there is nothing wrong with some good action scenes, I've found that shadowrun works best when you throw many different challenges at the players.

Mr. Johnson wants the runners to break into a factory complex. He tells the players to grab a very important blueprint, and get out ASAP. Problem is, he also tells the runners to not kill anyone and not destroy anything that can't easily be fixed (why? Well, that they might find out once they get there/in the following session).
The runners are forced to break into a building. The problem is that they can't set off the alarm, or all the guards will come running, and reinforcements will be sent in (and reinforcement is 10 min away!). Going in guns blazing might not be a good idea.
There is a locked door in the way. It looks rather sturdy. Who might have the key (and where might he/she be at this hour?)
The runners are supposed to steal a box. They know what the box looks like. Why are there 8 boxes like that in the warehouse, all containing different things (and why are they so darn heavy?)
The land lord is not all that happy with the runners. Why do they keep making so much noise, and why do they bring so many people with them into the small apartment? (I once had a player write a cranky landlord into his character description, and it resulted in many entertaining encounters)
Why is this company hiding ghouls in its cellar? They ghouls are quite keen on getting out, and say that they will make a lot of noise if the runners don't help them. How do you get 15 ghouls out of a building without anyone noticing?
Eh, the troll just turned into a gigantic insect. HELP!
The runners were sloppy, a camera spotted them. Now every lone star in the entire city knows exactly what they look like.
Now where do you hide a full sized army submarine? (A contact might know)

[JoeNapalm]

I just reach back into my childhood and remember what GI Joe and the Autobots taught me:  "Knowing is half the battle."

I figured out that the other half must be violence.

Is there a "+10" Reputation button? 

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

[CanRay]

I just reach back into my childhood and remember what GI Joe and the Autobots taught me:  "Knowing is half the battle."

I figured out that the other half must be violence.

Is there a "+10" Reputation button? 

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist

No, and there's no -10 either, so it evens out. 

[Zilfer]

Yeah otherwise your -14 would be -140! how's that for a Street cred - noterity test? xD