Word calls home each time it is launched. The ostensible reason is so it
knows whether it can use the Help files, clipart files, research, templates,
etc provided from Microsoft's site rather than installed on your computer.
No doubt there's a certain amount of 'market research' going on as well --
given their past behaviour, there's no reason to suppose that Microsoft has
been hit with a sudden attack of truthfulness and honesty.


"RA RHU" RA wrote in message
...
Every time I launch Word 2003, Zone Alarm tells me that it is trying to
access the internet, specifically a DNS server on the local network. Each
time this occurs, I deny the internet access and everything appears to
work
correctly.

Can anyone give me some insight as to what it might be trying to access
the
internet for and how I can stop this?

I am running WXP Pro SP2 and Office 2003 Pro with all available updates
installed on a Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook if that provides any clues.