winsock problem? some apps can't access any web site, most apps have no problems. W2K SP4+

[Clark Wilson]

Sometime as I applied SP4 updates (as they were coming out) certain
network-based tools stopped working, while most continued to work. For
instance, the Weather Channel desktop tool says "You must be connected
to the internet to run Desktop Weather." and another tools that checks
for website changes stopped being able to access any site. But the
WeatherBug desktop program had no problems, Internet Explorer and email
work okay, etc., etc. Some installers that dynamically download stuff
to install fail, while most work. An installer I ran today failed and
said there was a winsock error 11001 ("host not found").

I searched on Google and searched in the Microsoft Knowledge Base but
didn't find anything I could identify as describing this problem.

1) Is there any diagnostic tool I can use to get more precise info on
the nature and scope of the problem? I'm a programmer but not
knowledgeable about network stuff.

2) Or, can anyone just point me towards a fix for the problem?

Windows 2000 Professional, up to date on Microsoft updates. Winsock
info:

File c:\winnt2\system32\winsock.dll
Version 3.10
Size 2.80 KB (2,864 bytes)

File c:\winnt2\system32\wsock32.dll
Version 5.00.2195.6603
Size 21.27 KB (21,776 bytes)

Clark Wilson

 

[Clark Wilson]

Clark Wilson wrote:

[snip]

1) Is there any diagnostic tool I can use to get more precise info on
the nature and scope of the problem? I'm a programmer but not
knowledgeable about network stuff.

[snip]

I downloaded a demo version of a tool called TracePlus32. It says that
the API call that fails for The Weather Channel app is InternetOpenUrlA
but since the tool is a demo it hides parameters, etc. The stack trace
just says "WININET.DLL" and I have three versions of WININET.DLL on my
system. The one in system32 and the dllcache is ver 6.0.2800.1106.
One in a couple of app directories is 4.70.0.1215. I renamed that one
in one failing app's directory (to force it to use a dll outside its
directory) and ran the app but it failed the same way -- no change.
The other wininet.dll version is found only in
C:\WINNT2\ServicePackFiles\i386 and is ver 5.0.3700.6713.

Clark Wilson