SNMP versions

SNMP is known in three versions: v1, v2c, v3. The very first, v1, designed in 1980’s, was criticized due to its insecurity: to access data and/or modify them, one should only know community string (actually, a password), and the password transmitted in plain text. Using TCP wrappers and other techniques can somewhat mitigate the problem, yet v1 is too insecure to be actually used.

The so called community version 2, v2c, is somewhat more secure than v1; however, its party security model isn’t too simple for understanding and it still doesn’t encrypt all the traffic, thus allowing to sniff the community string stored in SNMP packets.

Version 3 implements user authentication, encrypts all the transmitted data and ensures data integrity. IPHost Network Monitor can use all the three mentioned protocols; however, v1 and v2c are considered obsolete and should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Glossary

Related terms:
SNMP
SNMP browser
SNMP bridges
SNMP hubs
SNMP router
SNMP switch
SNMP traps

IPHost features:

SNMP Monitoring – network testing, scanning, check
SNMP monitoring is the standard way to monitor network usage characteristics by monitoring the ports of routers and switches. The number of other parameters like disk space, CPU utilization & temperature …

SNMP Traps Monitor
SNMP Monitors belong to advanced type of IPHost Monitors. SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol, is a protocol widely used to request and/or modify …

SNMP monitoring
SNMP Custom Monitor (when properly set up on the target system) can be used to retrieve any information. Even if the default OIDs do not provide required information, it is possible to set up SNMP so that the output …