alt Hacker NewsPretty sure switches that support VLANs are more expensive than a NIC. I think even a 4 port GigE Intel NIC can be had for less.
But you might want VLANs anyway, so it's an interesting thing to consider.
Replies
hrmtst93837 • today at 4:44 PM
VLANs are fine. Running your whole core over one trunk into a general-purpose box gets dumb fast, because one bad config or L2 loop turns into a host-side debugging session.
Extra NICs move forwarding work into the host, and you pay for that in CPU time. If you care about isolation and wire-speed, buy a cheap managed switch instead of stuffing more NICs into the box.
Netgear GS305e supports VLANs and can be ~$21