The IP 212.227.127.74 refers to ch-software.de (you can check this with ping ch-software.de).
The connection is used to check if there is a new version of PopMan available (version information is stored in http://www.ch-software.de/popman/updateinfo.dat ).
In fact the beta notification is already working (if PopMan.exe is a beta, it also checks for Beta updates), I just didn't update the version info file.
I will do so with the next Beta...
It is not possible to disable the automatic update check in the current version, but I may add such a setting in one of the next versions, if desired...