It's nothing to do with "sensibilities" or "brilliance", Gypsy. It's about asking the question effectively and providing the necessary supporting information, as you must do in all cases where you seek technical support. If you fail to do that, you should not be surprised or offended if you are told as much. Though you may not like my comments, they contain sound advice.

Mentioning Real Player may have been helpful. It will automatically send out statistical information, check for updates and so on, unless you disable those functions via the preferences menu. There may well be other factors at work, of course, but the first thing to try is to rein in Real as much as you can and see if that makes a difference. I deliberately use an old version of it which is a bit less intrusive than later iterations, though it's still inclined, as "Foolstroupe" says, to be obnoxious.