If you are not on line then I wonder if it is the Messenger Service you need to stop, although doing so is a good idea. Try this nice little programme to do the trick for you, called "Shoot the Messenger" at
http://www.sharewaresoft.com/Shoot-The-Messenger-d
ownloads-25518.htm
If I were you I would get Zone Alarm, free download for personal version, and then wait and see what programme is trying to hook up to the net. Obtain the free version from
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/prod
ucts/znalm/freeDownload.jsp?lid=zadb_zadown
It might be a good programme that you have inadvertently set to "Check for Updates" at regular intervals. Once you know the programme that issuing the command to connect to the net you can do something about it.
Other nice anti-spyware utilities you might consider are Ad-Aware from
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/
0,fid,7423,00.asp
and SpyBot from
http://spybot.eon.net.au