Now all my other applications, Outlook Outlook Express,
Internet Explorer, FireFox browser, etc. don't seem to have
any problem with my "Internet settings or firewall".
Furthermore I never asked Adobe Reader to automatically
check for upgrades anyway, and I don't see any option for
turning off this additional annoyance.
Yes, I have seen the problem with IE7 blocking Adobe
Updater, but I refuse to "update" to IE7, so that is not
the source of the problem.