Duane writes in with a networking question.
Q. I can’t get on the internet anymore. I thought it was my router but its not. I can’t seem to get an IP address. When I do an ipconfig /renew I get a message that says An error occurred while renewing interface local area connection: an operation was attempted on something that is not a socket. No matter how many times I do it I get the same thing. I even tried a new network card. Help!
A. These issues may occur if your Windows Winsock registry keys are corrupted. These symptoms may be caused by running spyware programs such as SpyBot. These programs may kill your internet connectivity by changing certain necessary Registry entries.
One method you can try is to remove certain registry keys from the registry. Open the registry editor by clicking on Start, and then Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click Ok. 3. Locate the following keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
Right-click each key, and then click Delete and then reboot your computer.
Another method is to reinstall TCP/IP. Since TCP/IP is an integral part of Windows XP you cant remove it and then reinstall it again. To do a reinstall do the following:
Right-click your network connection, and then click Properties.
Click Install.
Click Protocol, and then click Add.
Click Have Disk.
Type C:\Windows\inf or browse to it and then click Ok.
On the list of available protocols, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click OK.
If Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) does not appear, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Search.
In the Search Companion pane, click More advanced options.
Click to select the following three check boxes:
• Search system folders
• Search hidden files and folders
• Search subfolders
In the All or part of the file name box, type nettcpip.inf, and then click Search.
In the results pane, right-click Nettcpip.inf, and then click Install.
Restart your computer.
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