I can only echo, reinforce, and validate all of the anger already expressed in this thread. I, for one, will never allow my QuickBooks software to ever connect to the Internet *ever* again. Unfortunately, to do this, you will need to muck around with Windows Firewall.
In my case, I still need my desktop software to talk to my local network server where the file is hosted. Here are the firewall settings that work for me:
