Why is System.Data.OleDb code contacting Microsoft?

Question

I noticed on my PC this week that an OleDBConnection to a LOCAL Access database was taking 2-4 seconds to close (depending on whether or not it is the first call to .Close() or a subsequent one). Last week this was much faster.

KB2952664 was installed on my machine over the weekend.

The following code triggers an HTTPS tunnel to odc.officeapps.live.com:

 Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

    Dim conn As OleDb.OleDbConnection
    Dim str As String

    str = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\temp\Northwind.accdb;"

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Print(DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss.fff tt"))
    conn = New OleDb.OleDbConnection(str)

    conn.Open()
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Print(DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss.fff tt"))
    conn.Close()
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Print(DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss.fff tt"))

End Sub

HOW DO I PREVENT .NET FROM CONTACTING MS WHILE IT IS RUNNING???

Here is a Fiddler screenshot showing the URL it is accessing. (left out our Domain Name) I didn't see any data that it is sending to that URL.

Answer 1

Unchecking "Allow Office to connect to the Internet" in Access Options stops this from happening.

This isn't ideal, because what if I want Office to connect to the internet for other reasons? Would like to have granular control over this.