Allied Telesis AT-S63 - Manual (Page 97)

AT-S63 Management Software Menus Interface User’s Guide
Section I: Basic Operations 97
string with an access mode of Read can only be used to view but not
change the MIB objects on a switch. A community string with a Read/Write
access can be used to both view the MIB objects and change them.
Operating Status
A community string can be enabled or disabled. When disabled, no one
can use it to access the switch. You might disable a community string if
you suspect someone is using it for unauthorized access to the device.
When a community string is enabled, then it is available for use.
Open or Closed Access Status
You can use this feature to control which management stations on your
network can use a community string. If you select the open access status,
any network manager who knows the community string can use it. If you
assign it a closed access status, then only those network managers
working from particular workstations can use it. You specify the
workstations by assigning their IP addresses to the community string. A
closed community string can have up to eight IP addresses of
management workstations assigned to it.
If you decide to activate SNMP management on the switch, it is a good
idea to assign a closed status to all community strings that have a Read/
Write access mode and then assign the IP addresses of your management
workstations to those strings. This helps reduce the chance of someone
gaining management access to a switch through a community string and
making unauthorized configuration changes.
Trap Receivers
A trap is a signal sent to one or more management workstations by the
switch to indicate the occurrence of a particular operating event on the
device. There are numerous operating events that can trigger a trap. For
instance, resetting the switch or the failure of a cooling fan are two
examples of occurrences that cause a switch to send a trap to the
management workstations. You can use traps to monitor activities on the
switch.
Trap receivers are the devices, typically management workstations or
servers, that you want to receive the traps sent by the switch. You specify
the trap receivers by their IP addresses. You assign the IP addresses to
the community strings.
Each community string can have up to eight trap IP addresses.
It does not matter which community strings you assign your trap receivers.
When the switch sends a trap, it looks at all the community strings and
sends the trap to all trap receivers on all community strings. This is true
even for community strings that have a access mode of only Read.
If you are not interested in receiving traps, then you do not need to enter
any IP addresses of trap receivers.