in an embodiment the best fit ip addresses are computed on the fly by the protocol engine 145 or a linked device based on the latest routing and server availability information fig2 illustrates a process according to embodiments in which an internet appliance client uses best fit ip address to create a binding with a server referring to fig2 a client initiates contact with a server using a first best fit ip address in a list at 200 if the connection is bound at 210 the binding process ends at 230 if the client is not bound to a server at 210 a check is made at 215 to determine if the last tried best fit address was the last address if the last tried best fit address was the last address the binding process is restarted at 225 if the last tried best fit address is not the last address contact is initiated using the next best fit address at 220 when a binding is successful at 230 the connection may be checked at 235 to determine if the connection has been lost at 240 if the connection has not been lost at 240 the checking process is repeated at 235 if the connection has been lost the binding process is restarted at 225 if none of the servers in the best fit server ip address list shown in fig1 at 105 responds then a u201c catastrophic u201d failure has occurred this could be because the user 39 s internet access has.