Hi, as we all know this problem has been beaten to death. I thought I'd never say this but I am "googled-out". No more can I search for the fix to this problem. In an attempt to save time I will list everything needed to know about my problem. Underneath my name should be my os (win 95) and etc. I have recently stumbled upon ad-aware and it CAN be run on win 95 (even though it is not supported) by installing a win 95 winsock 2 update. In the past, one application, namely WinMX, called for this update and at the time I had the EXACT problem (no internet access) and brought myself to giving up and running the ws2bakup.bat and saying to HELL with the update. Now, I want ad-aware on my computer. It is a must for me. I am aware of spybot S&D and prefer to stick with ad-aware. Simpler interface, better results. So, here's what I've tried: Downloading the winsock 2 update and installing it then rebooting. All goes well until I start my internet connection (not AOL, MSN or Earthlink) through a dial-up connection for my netzero provider. It connects just fine. But all internet based ap's go dead. E.g. IE, AIM. I haven't tried any others. But if I uninstall the update, like I did in my WinMX days, everything is returned to normal. Now after reading so many stories. I know about the conflict where you must install DUN 1.2b prior to installing the winsock 2 update. But that problem doesn't apply to me since I'm running DUN 1.4. So my question to you is: Is the winsock 2 update conflicting with the DUN 1.4? I have no other theories. Something is preventing me from accessing the web everytime after the ws 2 update. I've heard of a miracle fix: Winsockfix.exe. But before I jump on that, I didn't uninstall any app's winsock based except for a recent spyware CoolwebSearch. Ideas? I'm all ears.

Hi Have you been here? http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm Happy Holidays beansoup

Very, very close. Well not really. But it was a good read anyway. One of the articles of winsock I had not read about. The problem described in that article seemed to be aimed towards users vicitmized by ad-aware's faulty removal system and/or two syware's New.net and WebHancer; which I had never had either of. But I did try the lsp utility anyway and surprisingly it found nothing wrong. So I tried one of the 3rd party links at the bottom, of course the only one compatible with win 95, whndnfix.zip. It also did not find anything wrong. So that is it for me and the "fix" utilities. I'm going to try and cut down to the root of this problem. I've found the installation log of the ws 2 update and let's see if we can find anything wrong with it; I'd like to blame the whole thing on an faulty install (but I don't think that could be true b/c I've installed and uninstalled this monster over 5 times AND in some cases it corrupts my tcp/ip protocols in which I have to go in the CP > Network and reinstall occasionally) or the installation package entirely : -------------- WS2SETUP begin: 12/28/2003 02:14:38 RegQueryValueEx(VendorInstallDll) failed VendorWantsMSTCP=1, WantsMSIPX=2, WantsSetupUI=1 WantsMSDNS=1, WantsMSSAP=0 New wsock32.dll file version: 0004000a.00000678 Detected existing backup files - not backing up Existing C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL file version: 00040000.00000457 Non-Proxy copyright info for C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL Existing C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL file version: 00040000.00000457 TCP currently installed socket(IPX,STREAM) & socket(IPX,DGRAM) failed, error=10047 IPX NOT currently installed Upgrading Microsoft TCP Not Upgrading Microsoft IPX Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\msafd.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\wsock2.vxd Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\afvxd.vxd Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\wshtcp.vxd Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vtdi.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vtcp.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vip.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vudp.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vdhcp.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\vnbt.386 Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\icmp.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\mstcp.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\inetmib1.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\snmpapi.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\arp.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\ftp.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\netstat.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\nbtstat.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\ping.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\route.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\snmp.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\telnet.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\telnet.hlp Installed C:\WINDOWS\tracert.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\winipcfg.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\mswsosp.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\wsock.vxd Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\rnr20.dll Upgrading Microsoft DNS Not Upgrading Microsoft SAP WSCInstallProvider<msafd) result=0 (Err=0) WSCDeinstallProvider<msipx) result=-1 (Err=10014) WSCInstallProvider<mswsosp[other]) result=0 (Err=0) WSCInstallNameSpace<rnr20) result=0 Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\wsock32.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\ws2thk.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\ws2_32.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\ws2help.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\wsasrv.exe Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\mswsock.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\ndis.vxd Installed C:\WINDOWS\system\msvcrt.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\sysbckup\winsock.dll Installed C:\WINDOWS\winsock.dll Deleted CCS\Services\VxD\Winsock\AFVXD value WS2SETUP end: success -------------- I'm seeing the word "error" in there a couple times as a big giveaway as to what may be the problem. But I can't read that technical mumbo jumbo. These may be the culprits: WSCInstallProvider<msafd) result=0 (Err=0) WSCDeinstallProvider<msipx) result=-1 (Err=10014) WSCInstallProvider<mswsosp[other]) result=0 (Err=0) Any ideas?

UPDATE: Everything remains the same. But I have found something interesting. The DUN 1.3 upgrade for Win 95 contains the Winsock 2 update?! So would it be wise to download the DUN 1.3 (which hopefully would cure me of this monster) & DUN 1.4 packages then upgrade to DUN 1.4 and be done with it? Wait a minute!!! Almost sounds toooooo easy. Damn you Microsoft FOR ALL YOUR WORTH! Something is ALWAYS bound to go wrong. Credit to the page that gave me the idea: http://cws.internet.com/32winsock.html Well, as usual I'll await any suggestions/ideas before I proceed. BTW: About that whole winsock2 corrupted reg key theory; I have no idea where it is and I seriously doubt removing it is going to fix any conflicts.