SNMP Traps in Network Monitor

Network Monitor and SNMP Traps

SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. Simple Network Management Protocol is a set of standards for communication with devices connected to a TCP/IP network. It is often used to communicate with hubs and switches.

Since it was developed in 1988, the Simple Network Managment Protocol has become the de facto standard for network management. Because it is a simple solution, requiring little code to implement, vendors can easily build SNMP agents to their products. SNMP is extensible, allowing vendors to easily add network management functions to their existing products. SNMP also separates the managment architecture from the architecture of the hardware devices, which broadens the base of multivendor support. Perhaps most important, unlike other so-called standards, SNMP is not a mere paper specification, but an implementation that is widely available today.

There are three versions of SNMP: SNMP v1, SNMP v2 and SNMP v3. ActiveXperts Network Monitor is compliant with all three versions. To send an SNMP trap to an SNMP-v1-only device, you MUST explicitely indicate to send an SNMPv1 trap. To send an SNMP trap to an SNMP v2 or SNMP v3 device, simply use the default SNMP version.

ActiveXperts Network Monitor supports different data types, including:

String types (also called "octet strings");
Integer types (16bit, 32bit and unsigned integers);
IP Address types;
Timetick types;
Counter types (32bit and 64bit counters);
OID types (also called "Object ID's");
Other, less frequently used datatypes.

SNMP Agent

To use SNMP Traps with ActiveXperts Network Monitor, the SNMP Service must be installed, configured and running on the server where the ActiveXperts Network Monitor service is running.

To install the SNMP Service on a Windows XP/2000/2003 platform, you must do the following:

Open the Control Panel, choose 'Add/Remove Programs' and select the 'Add/Remove Windows Components' icon from the left-pane;
Select 'Management and Monitoring Tools' and click on 'Details';
Select 'Simple Network Management Protocol' and click 'OK';
Click 'Next'; it will now install the SNMP Agent software.

After installation, you must configure the SNMP Service, otherwise it won't work:

Open the 'Services' applet from the 'administrative Tools' group in the 'Start' menu;
Select 'SNMP Service' and select 'Properties' from the context menu (right mouse-button);
In the 'Accepted Community Names' list, add a new community, for instance: 'Public' (READ_ONLY);
Enable 'Accept SNMP Packets from any host', or add all hosts that you want to allow. IMPORTANT: Do NOT use localhost in the list of accepted hosts, it will not work!!
Restart the SNMP Service.

NOTE: The SNMP Trap service is NOT required (it is only required when receiving traps).

Testing and Troubleshooting

ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses ActiveSocket for all its SNMP Trap notifications. ActiveSocket is ActiveXperts' commercial Networking Toolkit. This Toolkit ships with a comprehensive Demo application (called 'ActiveSocket Demo Application').

To test and troubleshoot SNMP, you can this ActiveSocket Demo Application. Click on the link below to download:

ActiveSocket Demo Application (140 KB)