Hello cmanvell,
This is called 'forcing a connection' to the server. It is a bit mysterious to me, but I will tell you what I know. If you minimize the Grid Agent (click on the down arrow) then double-click on the WCG icon down in the Systray to maximize the Agent Screen again, UD.exe will attempt to contact the server. Otherwise it waits until it has completed a work unit.

The obvious reason to do this is if it has a work unit ready to return to the server, but has backed off from a connection. This will speed it up. If you are on dialup and only allow manual dialing, then this allows you to initiate the upload / download process. Last year I think I downloaded a new version of the application program this way by surprise, but I was not expecting it, so I am unsure.

Because of the possible interactions with a Profile that might specify set communication times, there are a lot of tricky details that would have to be spelled out to me in writing before I would feel that I really understood it.

But to answer your question, everytime you bring up the Agent Screen, it is attempting to contact the server. This is normal and it is something that you control.

mycrofth