XP networking stack corrupted

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Inacio
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris Inacio

I have a problem with my networking stack on XP Home. It
seems that the IP part of the stack doesn't work, but that
Netbios still works. I can't do "ipconfig /renew", I get
the infamous, "operation attempted on something that is
not a socket." error. I know there is a Knowledge Base
article on this, doing a command close to:
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
(it's not in front of me right now,) but that did NOT
solve the problem. Further, I tried the more severe
solution of deleting the WINSOCK & WINSOCK2 entries from
the registry to no avail. I also tried to do the setup
repair from the installation CD and that hasn't fixed the
problem either.

So the question is, does anybody have a suggestion as to
how to fix this, short of reinstalling the OS from
scratch? I'm also irritated that I can't ask Dell or
Microsoft without paying them money! Their stack ate
itself, and I have to pay to undo it?

If anybody is a REALLY adventerous soul, do you want to
MD5SUM all the DLL's in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 and post them,
so I can see if I have one that's trashed; I have pretty
much all of the lastest patches installed, except Media
Player 9.

Thanks,
Chris Inacio
 
1. Backup and delete the following registry keys

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
 
-----Original Message-----

I should further state, that when I configure the
interface with a static IP, I still can't do things like
nslookup, etc. But pings do work. It almost seems as if
between IP and UDP & TCP is broken. ICMP (ping) does work
ok though. It tells me no such service when I try things
like name lookup; my other machines on the same network
have no problems at all.

.
Chris,
Click to expand...
I have the same problem I can ping everyone. but cannot
access http. Have you found anything out yet?
 
A llen Sprague said:
I have the same problem I can ping everyone. but cannot
access http. Have you found anything out yet?
Click to expand...

==================================================

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
and run ipconfig /all, you get an APIPA 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"

If so, you have a damaged winsock2 key in the registry.

You should check System Information (winmsd)
Expand Components / Network / click on Protocol -
if the section headings item of "Name" have a value
starting with 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 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.

Ad-aware 6.0 build 181
http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10214379.html?tag=list

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.2
http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10194058.html?tag=list


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
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

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.

If issue is resolved, then be sure to delete the exported Winsock / WinSock2
..reg keys
as you don't want to accidentally end up importing those damaged keys back
into the registry.

==========================================================
 
By the way -

If you have not already installed the Critical Update
WindowsXP-KB823980-x86-ENU.exe
you better enable the XP built in ICF on your connection before
connecting to the Internet and then go straight to the Windows Update
Site and install all critical updates available or you may get hit by the
MSBLASTER worm.
 
Back
Top