System and method for hosted network management

A method of network management for communications over a computer network in accordance with a message protocol of the computer network, the method comprising:

• receiving a connection message from a node device at a network host wherein the connection message comprises a request from the node device for a network address in a managed network;
• determining if the requesting node device is associated with device registration data in the managed network that identifies a network owner and, if the requesting node device is a registered device, then returning a network address allocation message from the network host to the requesting node device, thereby self-configuring the node device for communications with the network host and establishing a hosted network associated with the identified network owner;
• periodically receiving authentication messages from the node device at the network host such that the network host can determine a mapping of the network address to the registered device, and responding to the authentication message with an acknowledgement message that maintains a persistent network connection path from the network host to the node device;
• and
• sending and receiving encapsulated packet messages between the network host and the node device, the encapsulated packet messages comprising packet messages of the message protocol appended with header information of the hosted network;
• wherein the network host retrieves message data from encapsulated packet messages it receives from the node device and performs network management operations to provide a user management interface to the identified network owner.