A network management system includes at least two network management stations. One of the stations is set as a main network management station, and the other is set as a backup network management station. The data packets are delivered to the two network management stations simultaneously. When the main network management station is in proper operational condition, it is set in an active mode by activating its IP and MAC addresses to the addresses that are assigned to it, and the backup network management station is set in an inactive mode by deactivating its IP and MAC addresses, so that only the main network management station can act upon the incoming data packets. When the main network management station is about to fail, the backup network station is set to the active mode by activating its IP and MAC addresses to the addresses that have been assigned to the main network management station, so that it can act upon the incoming data packets after the main network management station has failed.