Port Explorer/Mcafee questions

Hi, I use Port Explorer along with Mcafee Firewall (Without any of the compatibility problems Ive read about in past posts here), I was just wondering this:

Occasionally, in PE, two red instances of MPFTRAY.EXE will appear, both of which stay in the CONNECTING state to addresses belonging to Mcafee.com, and stay in that state for the duration of my connection.

Also, in the lower section of the PE screen, The process MPFSERVICE.EXE opens and closes port 0.0.0.0 every 5 seconds.

This stuff doesnt pose any problem at all (That Im aware of), Im mainly just curious about the goings-on on my computer... which is why I bought PE!

There is no need to go into the subject of Mcafee & their software/support problems, but I will say this- I will be shopping for a new Firewall/Antivirus package when my 'subscription' runs out, the software just uses too many system resources, and I dont like the fact that it constantly attempts to "phone home". (I wish I could figure out how to decipher the packets it sends to Mcafee.com to see what it is they need from my computer)

Thanks