Network Interface Cards must be VLAN capable? WTF?

[Shadowspawn]

I am having a discussion with one of my coworkers. We are both certified network administrators with several years of experience behind us. I was discussing Pfsense with him when he mentioned that the NIC in a PFSense box must be VLAN capable (when using VLANs).

According to the OSI and TCP models the NIC is a layer 2 device, at most. I can't understand where he got this idea and it makes no sense to me. The NIC is only responsible for passing bits. It shouldn't care what the content of the frame is, much less direct traffic according to the VLAN assignment of that frame.

Am I completely nuts here?

 

[LZ1]

Usually its a driver issue with the NIC supporting VLANs other then a single VLAN

 

[Shadowspawn]

Ok, I keep forgetting that VLAN tagging is actually a layer 2 concept. Because it requires a layer 3 device I keep placing VLAN tagging in the same catagory. My fault. Closing thread before anybody calls me an idiot.