A system and method are directed towards enabling and/or disabling a selection of a version of a network management protocol, such as SNMP. When a networking system is configured using an earlier version of SNMP, such as version 1 or 2, and is to be reconfigured to employ a later version such as version 3, certain options are to be reconfigured. Such options for example, include usage of a community string. When the networking system is to be configured back to the earlier version, the options are again reconfigured. The present invention enables an administrator of the computing system to manage such changes, in part, by abstracting the switching details, without the need to track a progression of events. Moreover, a state of the versions is tracked, such that if the networking system is switched back to version 1 or 2, the last configured community string value is restored.