From: mayayana@invalid.nospam   
      
    wrote   
      
   | Why does explorer.exe need an internet connection?   
   |   
   | I have it blocked for now.   
   |   
   | I'm using Win XP with AVS firewall.   
      
     It shouldn't. I've never allowed it and I'm not sure what   
   it may try to go out for. But Explorer is closely tied to   
   IE, so it gets complicated. Explorer.exe vs iexplore.exe.   
   Iexplore.exe might be called by other software if it's set   
   to be the default browser. (I like to set it as default and   
   then block it at the firewall, so that I never go online   
   accidentally by opening a webpage locally.)   
      
     You could try looking at where it's trying to go, if you   
   have firewall logs that list IP addresses. That might tell   
   you something. Also, anything running under Explorer as   
   a shell extension is in the Explorer process. So an Explorer   
   Bar, Property Page, Drop Handler, etc could be trying to   
   call out. There could even be a sleazy context menu   
   extension, installed without asking, that's trying to call   
   home. For instance, crap installed by Adobe to "Open   
   with Acrobat". A lot of programs will install that kind of   
   thing without asking.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)