Patent ID: 7966388

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by a computer to provide, to a user, a user interface to a network management system for configuring a network connection between a provider access point and a user access point over a network including a permanent virtual circuit between a switch and the user access point, the medium further comprising: instructions for providing a user interface to the user at the user access point that interfaces the user with the network management system and that directs the user to select a connection bandwidth for the permanent virtual circuit between the switch and the user access point; instructions for receiving at the network management system, through the user interface, a message indicative of a selected bandwidth from the user; and instructions for remotely provisioning the switch with the network management system in response to receiving the message to throttle the network connection at the switch such that the connection bandwidth between the switch and the user access point is limited by the user selected bandwidth thereby allowing the user, from the user access point, to interface with the network management system and select a bandwidth that is, in turn, provisioned as the connection bandwidth between the switch and the user access point.