Cancelled Network Setup Wizard during setup

[arthur]

My PC (Win XP Home) was connected to the Internet via
cable modem using a USB port because I had no Ethernet
card. PC worked great for months. I wanted to free-up
the USB port so I bought an Ethernet card so I can connect
to the cable modem via Ethernet.
I just installed the Ethernet card with out errors.
Then XP asked if I wanted to start the Network Setup
Wizard and I started it.
I got part-way through the setup and realized that it is
not what I wanted to do and I closed it.
Since then, I cannot use Internet Explorer, Outlook
Express, or anything else that attempts to access the
Internet.

Error messages are:
- "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered
a problem and needs to close..."
- "System is shutting down... initiated by NT
AUTHORITY/SYSTEM..."
- "messge RPC service terminated unexpectedly..."
- When I run IPCONFIG /RENEW from the command prompt, I
get the error "An error occurred while renewing interface
Local Area Connection : An operation was attempted on
something that is not a socket."

The behavior described above continues even after
unistalling the Ethernet card (and physiclly removing it)
and use the USB port to connect the cable modem.

Help. I need to get to the Internet.

 

[Robert Williams]

Read up on msblast. Sounds like your system is infected.

 

[arthur]

I used the latest update from my virus scanning vendor and
I had no viruses.
I performed a system restore from a day prior to this
problem and it made no differnce.
I repaired the Windows Socket Registry entries (knowledge
base #817571).
When I have some time I will try to Reset Internet
Protocal TCP/IP (knowledge base #299357)
I assume if this does not work it may take a reinstall of
Windows XP.
Any other ideas?