[Sir Gawain]

I just copied that post in #19 from another forum. I think the user was saying that Windows Update was trying to communicate with MS even after it was disabled.

[Cicero]

If you disable automatic windows update in WinXP, it no longer goes ahead and downloads the updates automatically. But it still appears to go on-line to check the update site for critical updates, so it can notify you they are available. I don't think that function can be turned off. But I haven't been using my computer with XP on it very much, so it's something I've only vaguely noticed.