Troubleshoot & Reinstall Winsock - WinXP

Problem: You have a PC that can ping nodes on the local network but can not surf the web. You have checked your browsers settings and security and have set them back to default but the problem persists, you have also uninstall the network adapter and reintalled it but still no comm. After all this you even downloaded all your browsers libraries [this is another FAQ Q&A] and re-installed and nothing.

Solution: Go to Run > regedit > and delete the following

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2

Restart the computer
Go to Network Connections
Right click and select Properties
Click on the Install button
Select Protocol
Click on the Add button
Click on the Have Disk button
Go to the \Windows\inf directory
Select anything there and click Open
Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Click on the OK button
Check to see if your network adapter obtained a new IP lease and if not...
Reboot