The Simple Management Network Protocol (SNMP) Service on Windows is available for Windows XP/Vista/7/2003/2008 to add monitoring capabilities and expose key information to other computers on your network. Once enabled, software can monitor OID (Object Identifiers) exposed by SNMP. By default, this service is not installed; however, it is easy to install and configure.

The software that i would recommend to use for monitoring SNMP is a complete IT solution for the small business network, Spiceworks.

The following links are to articles on how to setup SNMP.

• Install, Enable and Configure SNMP on Windows
  This covers all versions of windows
• SNMP for Windows 2000/XP
  This gives individual descriptions of the options and makes them clearer
• Configure SNMP Agent in Windows 2000/XP/2003
  This is simple article on the above
• Install and Enable SNMP Service in Windows XP, Vista and 2003
  This is a simple article on the above