User's Manual

142 CHAPTER 4: DISCOVERING THE NETWORK
links and WAN links are also depicted using clouds. See “Clouds” on
page 167
for further information.
For a detailed list of FAQs about the discovery process refer to the
Advanced Help that is supplied with 3Com Network Director. You can
view this by launching any previously generated Discovery report and
following the hyperlink Discovery and Topology Frequently Asked
Questions in the first line of the report. To view a previously generated
discovery report select Tools > Reports from the main menu, and click on
the History tab of the Reports dialog.
Support for 3Com
devices
3Com Network Director has support for all 3Com devices. The most
recent 3Com devices may not be fully recognized, but support should be
available in the latest 3Com Network Director service pack, available from
the 3Com Web site. For many non-SNMP 3Com devices (i.e.
Web-managed), 3Com Network Director will only retrieve a limited
amount of information from them, typically just their type. The topology
process simply treats non-SNMP devices as endstations. However, this is
unusual since most Web-managed devices are not switches or routers.
3Com Network Director uses specific images and text for the different
families of 3Com devices that are displayed on the map, and also uses
different border types depending upon the device’s capabilities. See “
The
Map” on page 152
Support for third
party devices
For third party devices, 3Com Network Director attempts to gather as
much information as it can, using standard protocols and, for SNMP
devices, using standard MIBs. The standard protocols are summarized
below:
■ HTTP - If the device supports the HTTP protocol (i.e. Web
management) 3Com Network Director will detect this and enable the
Web management right-click menu option. See “
Device Capability
Detection ” on page 93 for more information)
■ Tel n et – If the device supports the Telnet protocol 3Com Network
Director will detect this and enable the Telnet management right-click
menu option. See “
Device Capability Detection ” on page 93 for more
information)
■ SNMP – If the device supports SNMP 3Com Network Director
attempts to determine whether it is a router or switch