Readit News logoReadit News
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
dfajgljsldkjag · 22 days ago
Your AI slop said you have fiber, so maybe you should try to actually read it instead of having us catch your lies.

> 1. Downgraded Xfinity from $90/mo to a basic $50/mo plan (still usable speeds, just lower tier)

> 2. Added AT&T Fiber as a second line at $55/mo (different infrastructure = different failure modes)

> 3. Bonded both connections using WireGuard VPN and OpenWRT routing

Edit:

Another lie detected: ATT isn't accepting new customers on DSL, and is in fact yanking service for existing customers in many areas. So there's zero chance that OP signed up for ATT copper internet within the last year or so.

https://www.att.com/internet/dsl/

jclarkcom · 22 days ago
Thanks for your response, I'm acknowledging it and taking to heart.
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
kemotep · 22 days ago
It would be cool if the output that that the LLM made (commands it ran to harden, the iptables, MPTCP config, etc.) was included in the post.

It seems incredulous that this didn’t take dozens of back and forth prompts and fixes. It was able to one-shot deploying a digital ocean droplet and configure wireguard?

jclarkcom · 22 days ago
Here are some of the commands it used (censored & auto-generated) with a few specific examples at the end: https://jonathanclark.com/posts/bonded-internet-connection-c...

> It was able to one-shot deploying a digital ocean droplet and configure wireguard?

Yes, that part was pretty easy - but the whole thing wasn't one shot. The parts I struggled with were: - getting automated SSH installed on the $130 router, once you have that the LLM can drive things - during security hardening, I got fully locked out and had to recreate a new VM. But it was able to automatically recreate everything in a few minutes.

jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
kundi · 22 days ago
You completely neglected the egress cost for DO, and also the time / maintenance needed, which makes this a poorly engineered fantasy
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
Harsh, but a good point on egress cost that I overlooked, I'm adding a section on this - if you use Oracle cloud it looks like you get 10TB included at no additional cost where DO would be around $84 at the same bandwidth levels
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
shermantanktop · 22 days ago
If you are starting from relative ignorance about the topic, then yes, it is amazing.

But it does mean that the user can build a solution that they don’t understand well enough to maintain.

jclarkcom · 22 days ago
I've experimented with using LLM to setup and/or maintain some servers for me for various different use cases (this being one). What I like is an agentic LLM can either document it's initial build process or "explore" your server to better understand how it works, what configuration files are used, software versions installed, etc. When you have that documentation/context provided to a frontier LLM it can take care of most maintenance work you'd like do by hand for "simple" servers. A good prompt to get an llm to explore an existing server to make sure it fully understands it is to ask it to make a working backup.
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
jfernandezr · 22 days ago
Also the DigitalOcean deoplet includes 500GB per month, which for me is absolutely limited. Last month I consumed about 10TB.
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
That's a very good point. I included a "Cost Comparison by Bandwidth Usage" section that shows the cost for Digital Ocean compared to a commercial bonded solution. At 10TB the monthly DO cost goes up to $84/month which is significant, but if you compare that with a commercial solution that gives you a bonded connection (Speedify) they would charge $120/m for 10TB.

If you used Oracle cloud, I think 10TB is still in their free tier so you'd be looking at ~$15/month.

jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
nickphx · 22 days ago
yeaaaaaah .. something the llm didn't explain is how asymmetric bandwidth or latency between the connections will degrade performance... or how many services like streaming, banking, gaming will restrict, block, or otherwise treat the connection differently because the traffic now exits via a datacenter or VPN IP/ASN..
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
> or how many services like streaming, banking, gaming will restrict, block, or otherwise treat the connection differently because the traffic now exits via a datacenter or VPN IP/ASN.

I did run into this and claude implemented a work-around (see step 8) to route some traffic through the normal exit IP for those special use cases. So far I've only run into this problem with 3 services (Ring, Blink, and Paychex). Surprisingly none of the streaming services seem to care (Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV).

jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
nickphx · 22 days ago
oh boy, how amazing... an llm managed to generate some iptables rules and sysctl settings that have been well documented for years..
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
Maybe I didn't make it clear from the post, the llm (cursor+claude 4.5 sonet) was actually driving the whole process from provisioning a server, installing wireguard, setting up certificates, configuring network, installing packages, and updating security - with some testing at each step. I never ran any commands manually, I just told it what to do.
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
sema4hacker · 22 days ago
To save money, I would have just switched to ATT fiber like you did, drop Xfinity completely, and try that for awhile. It's worked for me for years, and my only downtime has been a few times during winter storms when the power goes out completely.
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
nice. I wish fiber was available for me. I only had access to AT&T's copper service (DSL) but they do 2-pair bonding so speed is not far from Xfinity.
jclarkcom commented on I Let Claude Build My Home Network: Two ISPs Bonded, $312/Year Saved   jonathanclark.com/posts/b... · Posted by u/jclarkcom
jclarkcom · 22 days ago
Bonding two ISPs was previously too complex for most home use until agentic AI. Claude can automate the entire WireGuard/OpenWRT/VPN setup, testing, and security hardening via SSH as an afternoon project. Total cost: $305 over 3 years vs $1,241 for commercial solutions. Downgrade your current ISP and add a second cheap one to get faster more reliable internet at home.

u/jclarkcom

KarmaCake day705February 20, 2013View Original