switch or router a better solution?

[bsdsmb]

I manage a small company network, currently a single flat subnet. I would like to segment the LAN to allow managing machines on the ops floor separate from the engineering group, separate from the server farm, etc.

If I begin subnetting the LAN, what is the best way to do this or manage it? A Layer 2/3 managed switch, a router, how does one go about this in the best way with today's available hardware?

Sage advice and or useful resources would be greatly appreciated. Most reading materials I have found clearly explain subnetting from the mask and ip routing layout perspective, but I'm not sure in the real world whether it's more practical to do it via VLANs at Layer 2, or Layer3 routing features in today's switches, or physically with cheapo layer 2 swithes and a real router...

Thanks for the insight.

 

[DBujaucius]

As an aside, I would like to hear similar feedback on whether VLAN's truly make a significant difference in reducing broadcast traffic in a fully (and intelligently) switched environment. If Cisco switches route the IP traffic from source to destination, then are there really a lot of broadcasts anyway? And I've heard that when you exceed 500 nodes you need to look at segmentation and VLAN's to minimize collisions and broadcasts. Same question, is this an issue now that hubs are a thing of the past?

 

[jimbopalmer]

I found VLANs helpful, but not perhaps in the way you mentioned. I pretty much made a VLAN = a subnet.

Priority by VLAN helped my VoIP implementation, although many other sites seem to need layer 3 prioritys

trunking multiple VLANS through one switch to another via Tagging is nice.

Layer 3 switch (router) ---1,2,3--- switch A (vlan1) ---2,3--- switch B (vlan2) ---3--- Switch C ((vlan3)

This avoids needing 3 home run cables back to the layer 3 device if the bandwidth is sufficient for all three. Each switch still can allocate addresses without risk of conflict, as they are seperate subnets.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.