Yep.. that's it!!! We have found the culprit!
Echoing $file($mircexe).sig does indeed produce
the alert, even with the SSL libraries removed.

Maybe this is just starting to happen because
we're into a new month, it being December 1st.

So it appears this connection might actually
have a good purpose, and perhaps I should add
a firewall rule to allow it access to port 80.

You guys are great! I'll sleep better tonight!

Regards;

Thomas