Community Name Strings

Earlier SNMP versions (v1 and v2c) rely on community name strings for authentication. In order for the network management station (NMS) to access the switch, the community string definitions on the NMS must match at least one of the three community string definitions on the switch. A community string can have one of these attributes:

• Read-only (ro)—Gives read access to authorized management stations to all objects in the MIB except the community strings, but does not allow write access.
• Read-write (rw)—Gives read and write access to authorized management stations to all objects in the MIB, but does not allow access to the community strings.