The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) defines a method by which a remote user can view or change management information for a device (a host, gateway, server, etc.).
A monitoring or management application on the remote user's system uses the protocol to communicate with an SNMP agent on the device to access the management data.
The SNMP agent on each device can provide information about the device's network configuration and operations, such as the device's network interfaces, routing tables, IP packets sent and received, and IP packets lost. This information, called SNMP objects, is stored in a standard format defined in the Management Information Base (MIB). The MIB defines the SNMP objects that can be managed and the format for each object.
The SNMP protocol together with the MIB provide a standard way to view and change network management information on devices from different vendors. Any application that implements SNMP can access MIB data on a specified device. For a detailed description of SNMP, see Request for Comments (RFC) 1157. For a description of the MIB, see RFC 1213. The MIB information used by WhatsUp Gold is contained in MIB files in the MIB directory (..\Program Files\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\Data\Mibs).