Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!ukma!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cwlim!trier From: trier@cwlim.INS.CWRU.Edu (Stephen C. Trier) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: Re: Clarkson's WD8003E Packet Driver and NCSA Telnet Message-ID: <1991Mar19.162235.20313@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Date: 19 Mar 91 16:22:35 GMT References: <1991Mar14.212817.4903@udecc.engr.udayton.edu> Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu Reply-To: trier@po.CWRU.Edu Distribution: na Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ. Cleveland, Ohio, (USA) Lines: 33 Nntp-Posting-Host: cwlim.ins.cwru.edu In article nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) writes: > One more thing: Has anyone heard about packet drivers which > will respond to snmp queries from the net? > >I know that Cabletron is doing something in that vein, but I know nothing >more than that. Cabletron has such beasts. Their version 1.03.00 and above packet drivers will interface with an SNMP TSR. Apparently, the TSR will intercept only SNMP packets and will pass all other IP traffic up to user applications, so you can still use TCP/IP software. (In other words, this is a special case, getting around the normal prohibition against multiple stacks of the same protocol.) The SNMP does not convey much information. A configuration file must be provided, and the SNMP implementation will use the information within it for its IP address, location, machine name, and a few other options. As far as I know, protocol statistics can not be retrieved. The only useful task we found for the SNMP TSR was to respond to the automatic discovery feature in network management software. It was decided that this was not worth requiring every user to give up > 20K of RAM. In addition, the configuration file was awkward, since all of our configuration information is downloaded dynamically via BOOTP. Therefore, we are not using SNMP. I believe that an SNMP implementation would be more useful inside a TCP/IP kernel, where useful statistics can be gathered and BOOTP information can be easily retrieved. -- Stephen Trier Case Western Reserve University Work: trier@cwlim.ins.cwru.edu Information Network Services Home: sct@seldon.clv.oh.us %% Any opinions above are my own. %%