I had the same problem and after nights of research here is how I fixed the problem. I am by no means knowledgeable about computers so you can copy what I did at your own risk, but it worked for me. I am running Windows 98 and the version of the dll file msvcrt was out of date. I downloaded a new one from this site…the file called msvcrt.dll:
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/index.shtml
I could not move the old msvcrt.dll file from the windows\system file while Windows was running. Therefore, I restarted my computer and held down the control key to avoid starting windows and instead got the ms-dos prompt. I moved my old msvcrt.dll file out of the C:\windows\system directory to someplace safe so I could put it back if things went wrong. I then moved the new msvcrt.dll file into the windows system file. Maybe there is an easier way to accomplish this, but it obviously eluded me. In case your ms-dos is rusty, the commands I used from the c prompt were
move c:\windows\system\msvcrt.dll c:\downloa
move c:\unzipped\msvcrt\msvcrt.dll c:\windows\syste
I can surf again
FYI: the msvcrt.dll file I had was Version 6.10.8293.0 and the Version I downloaded and installed was 6.00.8397.0.
Hope this info helps and good luck