What is SNMP? Is it on every router? I am not understanding it fully....

[Zaitsevs]

I am trying to install MRTG ( Multi Router Traffic Graph) from here.

What is SNMP? I googled and it gave me ( Simple Network Management Protocol)

Okay, but does that mean that is on every network device?

Would I be able to set this program up on my Belkin wireless router?

 

[nweaver]

if the device does not support SNMP, then it's pretty tough to add it. It's part of it's operating system. Most enterprise level gear supports it for management and reporting.


not sure on your belkin, but best of luck. MRTG rocks, but it does require snmp. Depending on what you want, you may be able to install snmp agents on your PC's and pull from there.

 

[Zaitsevs]

How would I figure out if it had SNMP?

 

[Nothinman]

SNMPv2 is an extremely insecure protocol for managing devices on a network, SNMPv3 is supposed to fix the security problems but no one implements SNMPv3, hell some software still only supports SNMPv1. It's mostly used for statistics, with the proper MIIBs installed on a system you can get everything from memory usage to installed software via SNMP. But it can also be used to change things on the device via the write community (community is essentially the SNMP name for a clear-text password), some routers even let you reboot them via SNMP.

if the device does not support SNMP, then it's pretty tough to add it. It's part of it's operating system.

For network devices, yes it's difficult to add because you would have to add it to the flash that the system boots from. But SNMP is no more a part of the OS than a web server is, you can install snmpd on any box you want.

How would I figure out if it had SNMP?

Get an SNMP tool installed and query it, generally the default communities are public and private for read-only and read-write communities, respectively. Also if the device doesn't let you change the community strings and restrict which interface SNMP listens on it's probably not worth using SNMP on that device from a security standpoint.

 

[nweaver]

when I say part of the OS, I mean like Cisco IOS...or firmware, if you prefer

 

[Nothinman]

But IOS is the exception, not the rule. For instance, on the low-end Cisco stuff (i.e. the Linksys crap) the firmware just contains a small Linux installation so any SNMP support would have to be done by snmpd in userspace. Whether that makes it part of the OS or not is debatable.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
But IOS is the exception, not the rule. For instance, on the low-end Cisco stuff (i.e. the Linksys crap) the firmware just contains a small Linux installation so any SNMP support would have to be done by snmpd in userspace. Whether that makes it part of the OS or not is debatable.

ummmm, the software running on the processor of whatever network device determines if it supports SNMP.

It is part of the OS. It either supports it or not.

To the OP, check out that stats/data sheet on that model. The year is 2006 - any network gear should support SNMP.

 

[Nothinman]

ummmm, the software running on the processor of whatever network device determines if it supports SNMP.

It is part of the OS. It either supports it or not.

As I mentioned, snmp is no more a part of the OS than http or smtp. I believe it's implemented inside of the kernel in IOS because IOS is monolithic and they had no choice, but on pretty much every other system snmpd is just another daemon that may or may not be installed. If you install SNMP on an NT box, would you consider it a part of the OS there too?

To the OP, check out that stats/data sheet on that model. The year is 2006 - any network gear should support SNMP.

On matters like this the year doesn't really matter, SNMPv3, IPv6, etc most devices doesn't support them and they've been available for how long now?

 

[nweaver]

Most network devices don't run an "os" per say, but rather they run firmware. You can't go and install snmpd on a SOHO router.

I'll agree that most enterprise level network devices support SNMP nowdays, but very few SOHO devices do.

 

[Nothinman]

Most network devices don't run an "os" per say, but rather they run firmware. You can't go and install snmpd on a SOHO router.

Yes they do run an OS, for example, most of the Linksys SOHO stuff runs Linux. The fact that it's loaded from flashable firmware instead of a hard disk is irrelevant.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Most network devices don't run an "os" per say, but rather they run firmware. You can't go and install snmpd on a SOHO router.

Yes they do run an OS, for example, most of the Linksys SOHO stuff runs Linux. The fact that it's loaded from flashable firmware instead of a hard disk is irrelevant.

We are talking in circles...I don't think it matters what you call the embedded software running network devices. Most SOHO gear doesn't have SNMP, and most cannot be upgraded to a different firmware file to support it. The exception is a few Linksys models. The WRT54G is no longer an option in that arena either.

 

[Nothinman]

We are talking in circles...I don't think it matters what you call the embedded software running network devices. Most SOHO gear doesn't have SNMP, and most cannot be upgraded to a different firmware file to support it. The exception is a few Linksys models. The WRT54G is no longer an option in that arena either.

But the point is that even though the devices use an embedded OS, it's still an OS, the medium it's loaded from is irrelevant.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

We are talking in circles...I don't think it matters what you call the embedded software running network devices. Most SOHO gear doesn't have SNMP, and most cannot be upgraded to a different firmware file to support it. The exception is a few Linksys models. The WRT54G is no longer an option in that arena either.

But the point is that even though the devices use an embedded OS, it's still an OS, the medium it's loaded from is irrelevant.

Yes, but you cannot just "load" snmpd on an embedded device.

 

[Nothinman]

Yes, but you cannot just "load" snmpd on an embedded device.

That's beside the point, but there are hacks for a lot of the Linksys devices that allow you to load custom firmware images.

 

[harrkev]

On a slightly related topic, can anybody recommend some good SNMP software that runs on Windows? It might be handy for controlling network devices.

 

[nweaver]

it's pretty spendy, but the Solarwinds suite has a lot in it.

We do some SNMP management via php driven websites and/or perl scripted cgi

 

[Goosemaster]

I am currencly messing with cacti...wish me luck

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: nweaver
Most SOHO gear doesn't have SNMP, and most cannot be upgraded to a different firmware file to support it.

I just updated the firmware on my Speedtouch ADSL modem, and found that the new firmware supports SNMP. So far I've managed to connect to the SNMP server (?) in the router with PRTG traphic grapher. But I still don't really grasp the idea of OIDs, and what OIDs I need to look at for bandwidth up and down.

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: Zaitsevs
I am trying to install MRTG ( Multi Router Traffic Graph) from here.

What is SNMP? I googled and it gave me ( Simple Network Management Protocol)

Okay, but does that mean that is on every network device?

Would I be able to set this program up on my Belkin wireless router?

It turns out that some Belkin wireless routers do have an snmp server in them. Which model do you have? What are you wanting to monitor in your router? Bandwidth? If you are using windows, I would recommend PRTG Traffic Grapher as an alternative to MRTG. It is much easier to set up, it's GUI based, etc. I wrote a post on setting up SNMP for my Speedtouch router:

What is snmp and how does it work?