# Corrupt Winsock on XP



## ihatemyjob (Mar 17, 2006)

I see this issue frequently in my line of work. When dealing with Internet connectivity issues on Windows XP, the sign of Winsock corruption is usually when renewing the IP address, you immediately get an error along the lines of "An operation was attempted on something that was not a socket". 

If their version of Windows XP has Service Pack 2 - then there is a simple solution. In the DOS prompt, run the following command: 

netsh winsock reset catalog 

You will them be prompted to restart the PC, and that's it. 

If their copy of of XP is without Service Pack 2, then either roll the system back using XP's system restore utility. That is not always guaranteed to work however, and a better solution involves them downloading a free utility called 'Winsock XP Fix' (google it for download locations) from another Internet enabled machine, and running it on the effected machine. It's a very simple program, and all they have to do is click on 'Fix', then restart the PC. 

Both of these fixes have worked pretty much everytime for me.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Actually, there are a couple of useful commands, that's one of them. 

*TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2.*

For these commands, *Start, Run, CMD* to open a command prompt.

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: *netsh winsock reset catalog*

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. *netsh int ip reset reset.log*

I'm assuming that you're referring to this Automated WINSOCK Fix for XP, which gets posted at least once a day somewhere on the board.


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## ihatemyjob (Mar 17, 2006)

In my experience (I get about one of these a week), reseting the TCP/IP stack does absolutely nothing. In particuluar when it is a windows sockets (winsocks) problem. There is only one fix for this particular issue.


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## win2kpro (Jul 19, 2005)

ihatemyjob,

I read some of the stories in "Desktop Nightmares" in the link you posted. Some of them were really funny  and I personally appreciate you posting the link. Thanks.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

ihatemyjob said:


> In my experience (I get about one of these a week), reseting the TCP/IP stack does absolutely nothing. In particuluar when it is a windows sockets (winsocks) problem. There is only one fix for this particular issue.


Well, there's your experience, and then there's a broader base of experience.  I've had success resetting the stack to installation defaults a number of times. Does it solve every problem? No, but it's just another tool in the toolbox.


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## ihatemyjob (Mar 17, 2006)

You're correct, reseting the TCP/IP stack has it's uses, but when dealing with a winsock issue in XP, it's unfortunately not as potent as it should be, and has never fixed this particular issue in my experience, but I'm specifically talking about fixing winsocks on XP, nothing else.

A corrupt winsocks issue in 98/Me is a different story, and reseting the TCP/IP stack (and physically removing the winsock key from the registry), then reinstalling TCP/IP (which will automatically reinstall the winsocks keys) is a different story. In this case, reinstalling TCP/IP is a whole different ball game.

On XP it does nothing when corrupt winsocks is involved.

I'm not taking away from what you say about the value of resetting TCP/IP on XP, it's an important command, I'm just saying that this isn't a fix for this particular issue.


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