Hardware is the way to go unless you're wanting to do complex routing labs, then I prefer virtualization, in general. Per my other comment, the subreddits I li

Hardware is the way to go unless you're wanting to do complex routing labs, then I prefer virtualization, in general. Per my other comment, the subreddits I listed are by far way more informative than what you'll get from the HN audience. That's not meant to be a slam, it's just that the subreddits are a more targeted audience.