Unable to access the web...getting a "winsock error" message

[Guest]

Booted up my computer and received the MS automatic updates which I clicked
on to update the files to my computer (the usual process about the second
week of the month). Afterwards, rebooted the computer to update the files.
Click on IE7 but couldn't get on the web. Got an error message that IE
cannot display the webpage (the basic MSN homepage). Tried the Diagnose
Connection Problem link and received the following message "Windows has
detected a problem with the Winsock provider catalog on this computer. This
catalog allows programs to communicate with this computer across the network.
Would you like Windows to reset the catalog to the default configuration?
This computer might need to be restarted to restore network connectivity."
OK, followed the procedure and still it doesn't work. Fired up the firefox
browser and I get on the web (which I'm using now to post this message) so
I'm confused as to why IE still doesn't work. Would appreciate any input as
to how I may fix this problem. Thank you.

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:

Found in the forum for ZoneAlarm that there's a problem with the latest
update for ZoneAlarm's firewall/security products which conflicts with IE7.
Seems you have to shutdown ZA before IE7 will work again. Hopefully, someone
here will be able to advise on a workaround to this (MS's firewall is nice
but prefer ZA's).