scope of the subject matter disclosed herein the embodiments operate in the above described environment to facilitate provisioning data link connection identifiers in a communications network first using the web client 12 the user inputs a url uniform resource locator to invoke the network management module 15 the url represents the address of the entry point to the web site embodying module 15 e g the home page for the web site upon entering the url the web client 12 makes an http request to the web server 14 hosting the module 15 the web server 14 in turn processes the request and supplies the client with the requested information in an html formatted web page after the user connects to the web server 14 an authentication process will occur the authentication process may be a user directed process using for example a login and password protocol user access to the network management system 16 can be associated with an access level determined by a user login or other user validation multiple access levels may be used for example to permit administrator rights to certain users and limit others to read only access in general the process of reading and authenticating a username and password is well known to those.