Abstract: The present invention provides a network configuration having a network management system coupled to a wide area network having high speed switches. Each high speed switch has a respective SNMP/file transfer protocol agent sub-system that emits a trap message containing event change information such as equipment error or interface association error. The network management system has a fault status agent that receives the trap message, then if the trap number is not in sequence, then the fault status agent initiates a lost trap default procedure and immediately polls the high speed switch for current status information. If a predetermined time elapses with no trap message from the high speed switch, then the fault status agent polls the high speed switch for a current trap number.