do I need mibs to query more data?

[InDenial]

Hi,

I am currently in doubt as to if I am doing things right. I am currently trying to query a switch (old cisco one) using perl. I was always under the impression that MIB's only were used to translate the OID's in more sensible format.

Now I am not so sure anymore.

Normaly I find the OID I want doing an snmpwalk on a switch. Since I do not have mibs installed this results in all numbers (wich is not too bad cause there is this site

http://www.mibdepot.com)

I found out though that when I do this on a network management station at work wich has tons of mibs installed I get more data.

can someone confirm this? and if so.. could someone explain to me how I setup my machine (XP pro) to use mibs I downloaded? Or give me some directions to sites. For the record:
running an XP machine with snmp services installed, activeperl 5.8.1 and I am using snmp_util.

thanks in advance,

InD.

CCNA