Gail said:
HELP!
I used Ad-Aware 6.0 to clean up a SLOW gateway computer.
I deleted about 300 "suspect" files. Initially the system
worked great. Then I could not connect to internet.
ISP is not the problem, technician said it was something
I did.
I get the following error message when renewing the IP
address:
"error operation has been attempted on something that is
not a socket"
I have tried re-installing XP, but this does not help.
Can someone tell me what I might have deleted and how I
can fix the problem?
You can post here, or send me an email at
(e-mail address removed).
THANKS!
G
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Read ALL of this before proceeding -
This happened because the spyware you removed with Ad-Aware had damaged the winsock registry keys
By the way did you use Ad-Aware 6.0 Build 181?
Uninstall any third-party proxy software or firewall programs before proceeding.
Step 1: Delete registry keys
A)Open Regedit from the Run line (Start > Run - regedit)
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
Go to Control Panel | Network Connections
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 will need to be reinstalled.
If you are not using a third-party firewall, then enable the XP Internet Connection Firewall
BEFORE connecting back to the Internet and then go to the Windows Update site and
install all critical updates (Disable any Anti Virus program before installing the critical updates)
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