The dependencies of the service I don't think is the problem. I have two
suspicions of the cause of your problem:
1) A third party firewall has gotten into a weird state and is blocking
everything.
2) Uninstalling something has hosed winsock because it left bits behind
If the file sharing software was peer to peer file sharing software, then I
think we're looking at number 2. Some peer to peer file sharing software
has spyware that comes along for the ride. If you didn't get the spyware
cleaned out of winsock but deleted the actual files, that would cause
exactly what you are seeing.
To confirm:
Open up "winmsd", expand Components, Networking and click on Protocol.
Scroll through the list (it may be long) and see if any of the Names listed
there start with anything besides MSAFD or RSVP (items that start with "XXX
over MSAFD" or "XXX over RSVP" can possibly be trouble too). If so, and you
aren't using the program indicated, then you can rebuild the winsock
catalog. Note, there ARE legitimate programs that plug into the winsock
catalog, including some firewalls and parental control software. If you
rebuild your winsock catalog, it WILL break those legitimate apps and you
will have to reinstall them to fix them. If you're not sure what a
particular thing is, copy all the text in the Protocol window and paste it
in a reply to the newsgroup and I can tell you if its something I recognize
or not.
To rebuild the winsock catalog, follow the steps below (steps courtesy of
Ken Wickes):
The following instructions will rebuild your catalog
for TCP/IP. If you are using any other transports (If you don't know, then
you probably aren't) then you will have to reinstall them as well.
Remember that editing the registry improperly can render Windows unusable.
If you are not comfortable with editing the registry, then consult a
professional for assistance.
1. Backup and delete the following registry keys with regedit.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
2. Reboot
3. Go to the network connections folder, right click the icon for your
network connection, and select properties.
4. Click install, choose "protocol", and click "add..."
5. Click "Have Disk...", enter "\windows\inf", click OK
6. Select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), click OK
7. When the process in complete, reboot
Post back here if you have more questions or want clarification on anything.
If this doesn't work, then post back and we'll see what else it could be.
-Matt