Abstract: A method for a guaranteeing a network manager discovers SNMP agents on a communications network. Each SNMP agent transmits a trap to the network manager. The trap contains the network manager's IP address and the SNMP agent's identifying information, including its IP address. When the trap is received at the network manager, it is parsed for the agent identifying information, which is compared against a list of previously identified/discovered agents. If the agent identifying information is not found, i.e., if the agent is a newly discovered agent, the network manager adds the agent to the list of discovered agents. The agent is then registered/stored in the discovered agents file. When the trap does not include sufficient identifying information, the network manager sends a query to the agent to extract additional identifying information. The system manager is thus able to discover all connected agents without broadcasting a query message.