There are two ways of adding an SNMP-enabled router, PC or device to PeakHour so that it can be monitored:
- Scan the network for SNMP devices
- Manually add an SNMP device
The first option is the simplest, but will only find devices running SNMPv1 with a default community of 'public'.
If you have devices that do not use the default SNMP community, are running an SNMP version other than SNMPv1 or are located on another network, you should manually add the device instead.
Scanning for SNMP devices
If you're unsure of the IP address or hostname. PeakHour can scan your network for SNMP-enabled devices that can be monitored.
A couple of things to note:
- The Scan for SNMP devices option performs a basic SNMP scan. The options are: SNMPv1/2c and an SNMP community of 'public'. If devices on your network do not respond to SNMP with those options, you will need to use the Add SNMP Device... button instead.
- The Scan for SNMP devices checkbox won't be available if your local network is larger than /24 / 255.255.255.0 / class C.
Manually Adding an SNMP device
To add an SNMP device manually, click the Add SNMP Device... on the Search for Devices view, or if you select an existing SNMP target in Preferences and click Edit in Configuration Assistant.
| Device Name | The hostname, FQDN or IP address of the SNMP-compatible device you wish to monitor. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community (SNMPv1/v2c) | The SNMP community this device will respond to. The SNMP community is essentially a password; the device will only respond if the community string is correct. Note the community need only be read-only, not read-write (although read-write will work also, but it is more permission than PeakHour needs). | ||||
Security Name / Auth Key (SNMP v3) | SNMPv3 provides must stronger security, authentication and encryption of data. SNMPv3 newer than SNMPv1/v2c and generally only supported by more fully featured devices. If you're unsure which version your router supports, try SNMPv1/v2c first.
PeakHour also supports both MD5 and SHA for authentication.
|
SNMP: Choose an interface
SNMP allows you to choose which network interface to monitor. For example, your broadband router might have a WAN / Internet Port as well as a number of LAN (local) ports that you plug other devices into. In addition, it might also have a WiFi interface for wireless devices to connect to.
You should choose the interface that you'd like PeakHour to monitor. If you want to monitor more than one interface (say, both Internet and WiFi), add the device more than once, choosing a different interface each time.
Most of the time, you'll want to at least monitor the Internet interface. On many routers, this might be called:
- wan0
- pppoe0
- pppoa0
- internet
or something similar. Note that interface names vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and device to device so you may need to do a little detective work if you're not sure (see below for our tip on using Speedtest).
Which interface?
If you want to monitor Internet usage and you're unsure which interface, a good way to test is to visit somewhere like http://speedtest.net whilst the Interface list is visible. Watch each interface and see which one corresponds closest to the throughput of speediest.net.