Hi guys.
I'm new to the world of computers, and yet my boss asked me to learn on the operation of Unix SNMP Trap Handler and Generator. Can any kind soul enlighten me please? Help much appreciated. 
Jolie.
Obvious question: once you get a basic feel for this what are you expected to do with
it?
This gives you everything you need to know:
In general there is a book from oreilly with a distinct animal on the cover for almost all of the basic stuff for computer and network technology. I commend that fact to your immediate attention.
SNMP provides a means of monitoring network devices through a central manager.
It is a protocol, because it defines "who" gets to talk about what, and how the talk is formatted and transferred.
Overview:
Simple Network Management Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SNMP trap is asynchronous, that is, it creates a message on its own. The message is created when there is a problem with a network device.
In order to undertand it, you need to understand UDP, TCP/IP, plus what your network looks like, so-called network topology.
The basic idea is:
- there is a database of device information - MIB
- a small program runs on each network device - an agent
- A manager program runs on a computer - the NMS. This coordinates information derived from each agent.
Network devices are things like routers, switches, and so on.
yikes - your new to the computer world and your first task is to learn UNIX SNMP. that is not a very nice boss 
also - check out Net-SNMP