the present invention includes a method and apparatus for filtering ip packets based on events within a computer network . more specifically , the present invention includes a services management system , or sms . the sms manages network connections between a series of client systems and a router . an access network control server manages the configuration of the router . the sms monitors activities or events that occur within the network . in response to these events , the sms dynamically downloads filtering profiles to the ancs . the ancs then uses the downloaded filtering profiles to reconfigure the router . the router then uses the filtering rules to selectively discard or forward ip packets received from the client systems .