This tool allows for the browsing of the output of a 'SNMP Walk'. There are some unique features that set the tool apart from all others.
In order to start the SNMP Browser two bits of information are required. The first is the Host name or IP address. This must be filled into the box next to Host. The second bit of information is the Community you wish to query. The Community can be thought of as a password for the SNMP server. If the Community entered does not match that specified on the SNMP server the server will not respond to the query. To you, the client, it would appear as though the host does not have a working snmp service. The server can be setup to support a number of communities. Depending on which is used in the request, depends on the data given to the user. The most common community used is 'public'.
For each 'root' of the SNMP tree the output is first obtained and then 'cleaned', before it can be viewed. This cleaning optimizes (reduces to a minimum) the depth of the graphical layout of the MIB tree. This makes browsing a lot quicker, reducing the number of items that have to be 'opened' to get the end of the tree without compromising the data. A value for a MIB is only present right at the 'end' of a 'branch'.
Due to the way MIB trees are constructed, the need to expand lots of branches in order to get the information needed about one branch is often very inconvenient. To make the browser more useful, the use of what we have termed 'inference' has been incorporated.
In the screen capture above you can see that the end of the interfaces.iftable.ifentry.ifadminStatus.2 has been selected. All grayed values are inferred values and if not used in the context of the selected item are inaccurate. In other words the MIB interfaces.ifTable.IfEntry.IfDesc does not have a value of 'eth0' (in fact it has no value at all), but interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDesc.2 (inferred from .ifAdminStatus.2) does. So in the example, we wanted to know what the status of an interface eth0 is, and in this case it was 1, which means operational. But unless you had also expanded .interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifDesc you would not know that 'eth0' was referring to the .1 MIB extension. Although very difficult to expain in words, those used to a graphical SNMP browser will find 'inference' very useful and all should find it intuitive
The SNMP Browser also has the ability to attempt to write to the server. Simply click on the value and enter what you desire. Note that the server will have to be setup to permit writing. If it has not been configured, then the server will most lightly not permit it.