Which protocol is commonly used for network monitoring?

• A. FTP
• B. SNMP
• C. SSH
• D. HTTP

Answer: (B)

Monitoring network devices relies on a protocol designed to expose status and performance metrics to a central collector. This protocol is SNMP, the Simple Network Management Protocol. It uses lightweight agents on devices and a central manager that queries those agents for data and can receive alerts when something changes. Data is organized into MIBs, which describe what can be measured (like interface utilization, CPU load, memory usage) and how to interpret it. The manager can poll devices periodically or receive traps/alerts pushed by devices when thresholds are exceeded. This combination makes SNMP ideal for automated visibility, inventory, and alerting across a network. There are multiple versions, with SNMPv3 adding improved security features such as authentication and encryption, which is important in production environments. In contrast, other protocols listed have different primary purposes: FTP is for file transfers, SSH provides secure remote command execution, and HTTP is for web communication. They aren’t built around standardized, scalable monitoring of device metrics, which is why SNMP is the go-to choice for network monitoring.