An apparatus in a LAN has first and second hardware interfaces to connect to the LAN. First and second monitoring request messages are transmitted to one or more devices in a first VLAN and one or more devices in a second VLAN respectively, via both the first and second hardware interfaces. The monitoring request messages use the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) or the Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP). First and second monitoring response messages are received via the first and/or second hardware interfaces in response to the first and second monitoring request messages respectively. A selection is made between the first and second hardware interfaces for performing data communication, based on the first and second monitoring response messages. The selection is performed independently for data communication via the first and second VLANs based on at least one characteristic of the first and second monitoring response messages respectively.