Actually that does help a bit............. does that mean there's no configuration needed?

That's kind of what I was thinking....

I'm sure I still need to have the snmp subagent enabled through the Iplanet administration page (theres a setting for this under the status menu)

Sounds good...

My question for you would be what version Iplanet is that documentation for? (I'm using 4.1 I think)

That was from a 5.x Console guide. If you don't have the right 4.x guide, you should be able to find it on docs.iplanet.com

I should probably spend some time learning how to query SNMP I know how to get all my system info but haven't a clue as to how to query for things like traffic on certain ports....

"Use the MIB, Luke!"

I wonder if they make an SMPT for dummies book?

Well, reference works like The Simple Book are awful dry. No "For Dummies"-type book that I know of, but I think if you Google for "SNMP tutorial/primer", you'll find a lot of stuff.