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I guess it would have been better if Chris had
mentioned what post
he used to resolve his issue.
I believe he probably came across a post such as
mine that deal
with damaged winsock keys in the registry. There
are several posts
concerning this that have been submitted in the
past and they all
use the same procedure for rebuilding the winsock
keys. My post
just goes into a little more detail. I did not
originate this procedure but
was given it by a very reliable source.
I hope this is the resolution you are looking
for.
Please read this whole reply before proceeding
with any suggestions.
Issue:
on this XP Home/Pro computer,
when trying to
browse the Internet,
you are getting "Page Cannot Be Displayed" and
when
you go to the command prompt window
(Start > Run > cmd)
and run
ipconfig /all, you get an APIPA
(Automatic Private Internet Protocol
Address)
in the form of 169.254.x.x.
Then immediately run ipconfig /renew,
you get this error message:
"An operation was attempted on something that is
not a socket"
or
"Unable to contact DHCP server"
If so, you probably have a damaged winsock2 key in
the registry.
You should check System Information
(winmsd)
START > RUN - type in winmsd and click OK
Note the value for
the Windows Directory (Usually C:\Windows but not always)
Then expand
Components / Network / click on Protocol -
if the section headings item of
"Name" have a value
starting with anything other than MSAFD or RSVP
then
that is probably what is causing the problem.
Examples:
MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
MSAFD Tcpip
[UDP/IP]
RSVP UDP Service Provider
RSVP TCP Service Provider
MSAFD
NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
and so on
It may be a third-party firewall or a Spyware or a
Virus.
("New.Net" is a common spyware for example)
Make sure that MSCONFIG
(System Configuration Utility) is in Normal Startup
and then see if
uninstalling the third party firewall
(best done from its own uninstall
program if available)
or the Spyware from Add Remove Programs will
resolve the issue. If it's a virus, then only an Anti Virus Program
will
be able to deal with that.
You may want to try downloading either Ad-Aware 6
or Spybot
to another computer and then installing one of them on the infected
XP Home/Pro
computer and try to wipe out Spyware and see if that resolves the
issue.
If none of that works or is possible, you could
try this method
for replacing the winsock and winsock2 registry
keys:
Uninstall any third-party proxy software or
firewall programs before proceeding.
Step 1: Delete registry keys
A)Open Regedit from the Run line (Start > Run -
regedit)
B)Go to both of the following keys, EXPORT each of
them, and then delete them:
(To export a key, you right click on it and
choose "export" - you can choose where to export them to -
DESKTOP is handy -
and you need to type in a file name such as "exported Winsock key"
/ "exported WinSock2 key"
and then click on SAVE)
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2
C)Restart the computer
NOTE: It is important to restart the computer after
deleting the Winsock keys.
Doing so causes the XP operating system to
recreate shell entries for those two
keys. If this is not done, the next step
does not work correctly.
Step 2: Install TCP/IP on top of
itself
Go to Control Panel | Network
Connections
A)Open the properties window of the network
connection (Local Area Connection)
B)Click Install
C)Click Protocol, then
Add
D)Click Have Disk
E)Type the path to the \%systemroot%\inf folder
(usually C:\Windows\inf) and click OK
(if you try to click Browse, then
browse to the \inf folder,
it may not show up in the list)
F)You should
now see "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" in the list of available
protocols.
Select it and click OK.
G)Restart the computer
When the computer reboots you will have functional
Winsock keys.
If so, then be sure to delete the exported winsock and winsock2
reg files.
(You don't want to accidentally put them back in the
registry)
Side effects and possible problems:
This method will restore basic functionality to the
Winsock keys, but is not a
complete rebuild. On a default install of Windows
XP the registry
key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2\
Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries
will have 11 sub-keys.
When applying this method, the Catalog_Entries will
only have 3 sub-keys.
However, it works and there does not appear to be any
side effects.
The missing entries relate back to
the:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
key.
Also, third-party proxy software or firewalls may need to be
reinstalled.
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