Why is Microsoft spying on my pocket pc?

[jsteph]

Hi all,
I'm just wondering if this is hysteria or a valid issue--I just got a port sniffer, and now I've noticed that, even with my browser closed, every time I plug in my toshiba pocket pc to the cradle, the sniffer pops up a huge number of packets outbound on port 80 to

http://www.us.microsoft.com.

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT??!!

The only stuff I have sync'd is calendar and notes, no email inbox or web pages or whatever. There is no reason whatsoever that ms should need to be contacted to sync this thing. Thanks for any info on this possibly benign (but most likely not) traffic.
--Jsteph

 

[routermad]

Could it be your PC checking for windows up date?

 

[jsteph]

router,
It's possible it's looking for an ActiveSync update, but i've turned the automatic update thing off--I manually go to Windows Update every now and then. However, they may have snuck something by me that checks only for the ActiveSync update. But if that's the case, then the fact that I wasn't notified about that is what bothers me--and that part I don't know how to turn off without a firewall.
--Jim