While helping someone with a system, suddenly it will not connect to the internet. The message "Problem with winsock provider catalog" comes up. I try to reset it to default and reboot it, but this doesn't do anything. This computer owner has no way to download winsockfix.exe. He is in Arizona and I am in California. Is there anything else that can be attempted?

Update of things that we have tried to no avail. Released and Renewed the IP address. Reset the winsock provider catalog to default settings and rebooted. Nothing worked. Now we are having trouble getting the IP address to renew. We also loaded and ran the recovery console, specifically chkdsk /r. It did nothing to assist in the connection problem but sped up the system in general. Now the IE page error message comes up faster. Followed the netsh.exe rules and that is probably where the IP renewal problems came about. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

You can use this way to fix winsock catalog problem: Type netsh winsock reset in command prompt and hit ENTER button. Restart computer and test again. picohat Home Network, Wireless Network Help

We did that as well, with the result being that it returns with the original error.

While looking in the registry, we noticed that the Winsock folder is missing where it once was. I am sure that is related to the current problem. Suggestions?

Newest update. Installed winsockxp.exe repair via a flash drive. Now we can obtain an ip address, but cannot access the internet via IE or Firefox. I am currently have it run a chkdsk /r /f after I ran a chkdsk and errors were found. I will post the end result and whether or not it worked and we can or cannot access the internet.

Following the chkdsk /f /r, IE and Firefox still do not connect to the internet. I can ping the default gateway address of his computer. Is there any way of correcting the connection problem through command prompt, either by him or remotely by me?