Network appliance combining asychronous notification with interactive network transfer protocol server

A network appliance comprising:

• a set of ports for coupling to network devices other than said appliance;
• counters for detecting and enumerating instances of respective event types relating to the performance of said network, at least some of said counters being coupled to respective ones of said ports for examining data received thereat;
• execution means for executing a program, said execution means being coupled to said counters;
• computer readable media coupled to said execution means;
• a monitoring program embodied in said computer readable media, said monitoring program when executed retrieving counts from said counters,
• calculating values of network-performance related parameters as a function of said counts,
• comparing said values with thresholds to determine whether or not a notification should be generated, and
• in the event a comparison indicates that a notification should be generated, generating and transmitting on said network a notification that specifies a network location associated with said network monitoring program;
• and
• a server application for, in the event that said network location is addressed, specifying a course of action to be taken to mitigate a problem associated with said notification.