A communication system is provided. The communication system includes a
customer premises equipment, a wireless device, and a configuration
server. The customer premises equipment can provide communication
services to a local area network and can also communicate with the
Internet. The wireless device has access to the Internet and can
communicate with the customer premises equipment. The configuration
server has access to the Internet and can communicate with the customer
premises equipment to configure and maintain the customer premises
equipment via a first path that includes the Internet and a modem and via
a second path that includes the Internet and the wireless device.