A network based management system enables network devices installed at a
customer's premises to be automatically monitored and managed for
automated support services. 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.