Each network device includes a monitoring agent configured for generating a notification message based upon an event where device operations exceed prescribed monitored parameters. A troubleshooting resource at the customer premises requests selected device state attributes from the network device and that are forwarded to a data collection resource that serves as an interface to the manufacturer's back-end infrastructure. The troubleshooting system accesses databases that store the configuration information for the affected network device, and uses the configuration information for accessing problem/resolution information. The rules based troubleshooting system, upon correlating the databases for the problem/resolution information, provides a service notification message as a response to the event, and selectively includes the problem/resolution information for the network device.