To extinguish in advance packets having a possibility of exerting an adverse influence to a whole network.

A network management method for a network having a plurality of nodes and a network management apparatus is disclosed. Each node has a recording unit, notification unit, and extinction unit, while the network management apparatus has an extinction instruction unit. The recording unit identifies the header information of a received packet and records the received packet. When packets having a same header information are recorded predetermined times or more in the recording unit, the notification unit specifies the header information and notifies the network management apparatus of the packet. The extinction instruction unit, when notified from the notification unit, gives an extinction instruction with respect to the packet on which the notified header information has been specified to each node other than the node of the original notification. After the extinction instruction is given, the extinction unit extinguishes the corresponding packets when the packets are received.