I started this project because of the lack of resources for the older, but still highly
used SNMP protocol. The SNMP protocol still remains the de facto standard when it comes
to network monitoring and management.
I was trying to write an application that would monitor Lucent (formally Ascend) MAX RAS
servers, as well as a few Cisco 2600/2700 routers. I figured that .NET would have something
written for it that would work with SNMP like the SNMP agents and handlers in Java, Perl,
PHP, and a few hundred other languages. I guess it was my fault that I figured that about
a Microsoft centric programming language. I needed to keep writing it in C# because I had
already got so far in other parts of the application.
I was forced to learn the SNMP protocol from scratch. I figured it wouldn't be that hard
since it's called Simple Network Management Protocol. When they said simple,
they meant that it was a simple subset of a few other standards that C# didn't have any
support for ether. I didn't know how complex such a venture would be, but I knew it could be
done.