Avast 8 bandwith and connections

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

just installed Avast 8 free, because the built in MS security in Windows 8/64 just isn’t good enough.

But here is my problem:

  1. After the installation Avast uploaded a lot - and I mean really a lot (why?)

  2. When I understand it correctly all my Internet traffic gets routed through Avast, but why does Avast phones home all the time even when there is no application open?
    All the time - like every 15seconds?
    This uses about 0,6MB per hour * 14h * 30d = 252 Megabyte !!!
    And this is only useless bandwith (Streamupdate deactivated, community service deactivated) - no program updates no virus definition updates included.

THX for any input