MANAGEMENT NETWORK ACCESS FOR NETWORK USERS

In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention, a method using shared configuration information to manage network access for externally generated communications (Figure 3) includes maintaining association information for a first end user of a private network (100) and maintaining configuration information for a first end point associated with the first end user (102). When an externally generated communication that is addressed for delivery to a second endpoint associated with a second end user is received at an access point to the private network (104), the association information is used to determine an association between the first end user and the second end user (106). The configuration information for the first end user is used to configure the access point (108) to allow the communication to be delivered to the second endpoint.