142CHAPTER 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 3Com Network Director has support for all 3Com devices. The most devices 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 For third party devices, 3Com Network Director attempts to gather as party devices 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)

■Telnet – 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