In-House Fixes

Beware of SNMP

I found Bruce Boardman's recent review of network-monitoring software ("More Ping, Less Bling," Oct. 1, 2004) very useful. I will likely acquire my monitoring suite from his shortlist.

It appears that you can divide network-monitoring systems into two classes: those that rely on SNMP and those that require proprietary agents.

I was leaning toward SolarWinds.Net's Engineer's Edition Toolset 7, so I did a little research into the SNMP protocol. The results weren't encouraging. CERT issued a vulnerability notice, and Microsoft advises not to use SNMP at all if the machine is exposed to the Internet.

Is a system like Neon Software's LANsurveyor, which uses proprietary agents, inherently more secure? Or am I safe with an SNMP-based system, as long as the SNMP services are running behind a firewall?Steve Graves
Chief Engineer
Communications Resource
[email protected]

Bruce Boardman replies: When it comes to managing devices over the Internet, SNMP vulnerabilities are unavoidable. Proprietary agents may be more secure, depending on their transmission encryption. And they do a better job of systems management.

Save Us, VoIP!

Since our 100-employee company is in the market for a new voice-over-IP system, we found Peter Morrissey's "VoIP to the Rescue" (June 24, 2004) most appropriate.The review points out that Siemens HiPath 3000 Real-Time IP System 4.0 requires proprietary phones. How big a problem is this?

Hunter McCleary
Systems Manager
Editorial Projects in Education
[email protected]

Peter Morrissey replies: You need to weigh the benefits of the Siemens product against the lock-in to proprietary phones. I would bring the issue up with all the vendors and see what they have to say. Make sure they give you concrete examples and commitments, not lip service.

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