In a portable subscriber unit (200) a processor (204) is arranged
and programmed to maintain (302) in a memory (208) a list identifying
a plurality of devices which are to be connected quickly through a communication
network, and to establish (304) a new connection with the communication
network. The processor is further arranged and programmed to perform, in response
to establishing the new connection, when necessary for pre-programming the communication
network to minimize the connection setup time for subsequent connections with the
plurality of devices, at least one of the steps of (a) sending names of the plurality
of devices to a domain name server (DNS) of the communication network to obtain
IP addresses corresponding to the names, thereby causing the DNS to cache the IP
addresses of the plurality of devices for faster servicing of subsequent connections,
and (b) transmitting a dummy Internet Protocol (IP) packet to said plurality of devices.
