Sometimes when I am surfing the internet, i will go on to a page and the window says internet explorer cannot connect or whatever i dont really remember right now, surprisingly since it happens pretty much daily, anyway, ive figured out it was my winsock awhile ago but i tried the winfix sp2 and that didnt work, i tried using the netsh winsock reset command and that didnt work either, please help its annoying to have to restart my computer just to continue browsing. i have ie version 7 and when i had firefox and ie before firefox would just stop working. and like i said before i dl'ed winfix or whatever and that didnt work

Are you connected via wireless? If you are, the problem is probably your wireless connection and not your Winsock at all.

no its not wireless

In that case you need to provide more info. The Winsock generally works fine or it doesn't work and you don't normally need to fiddle with it. E.g. have you always had this problem or it is a recent thing - if recent did it start acting up after you installed something, or Microsoft Update installed something? Is your Windows working fine otherwise, or is it buggered? Are you using DSL or ADSL or a cable modem? Have you tried re-setting your modem instead of rebooting? Etc. etc. , as much detail as you feel will help us help you in the fewest number of posts.

my windows works completely fine besides this. its been going on for 2-3 months it happens once every 1 or 2 days sometimes more. it might have been after i installed the battlefield 2 patch and game but i deleted all of that off my computer so i figure that would solve the internet problems but it didnt. i use dsl modem. i dont remember if ive ever tried resetting it, next time it happens i will. it never quits me out of internet games while im playing but whenever im using instant messenger or browsing the internet it will just stop working and when i click diagnose problems it says my winsock is having an error or something. so please help if i need more detail just tell me, this is very annoying especially when it happens often. thank you

"...it might have been after i installed the battlefield 2 patch and game but i deleted all of that off my computer ..." You don't Delete programs in Windows 9x and up - you Uninstall them. If you deleted files rather than un-installing the program, you may need to clean up the mess you left behind in Windows by installing the game again, then Uninstalling it properly. "...its been going on for 2-3 months it happens once every 1 or 2 days sometimes more..." That's a very minor annoyance if it only happens that often. You've got to keep in mind you get what you pay for (e.g. I pay only about a dollar a day for 1.5mb/sec ADSL), and no ISP (Internet Service Provider)is 100% reliable. "..i use dsl modem.." Many things can affect the reliability of a DSL connection, but if you have no problem during online games, most of the things that can cause that probably don't apply in your case. As long as: ..... - if you are using a cheap flat telephone it is as short as you can manage and routed so it is less likely to pick up interference - there is no line noise on your telephone line - you are not near the distance limit for DSL from the closest phone exchange - if you do not have a dedicated DSL line directly to your modem, that there are DSL blocking filters between all other telephone devices connected to the same line and the wall connections ...then there is not much you can do about the problem. One thing you can do, if you haven't already, is to optimize your TCP settings. The default TCP settings in Windows are not ideal. You can often make your connection more reliable and load internet pages a bit faster, etc., by using a TCP settings optimizing utility. If you haven't used one I advise you to get and use one. e.g. search the web for: TCPOptimizer , download it, run it, choose Optimized settings for the connection to your network card you are using to access the internet. You only have to run it once, it uses no resources at all, and the TCP settings will stay optimized, until the next time you load Windows fron scratch. ....... Those cheap flat phone cables have wires parallel to each other and because of that are notorious for acting like an antenna and picking up any nearby electric or electronic noise. If you have a long flat cable to a wall jack, the longer the cable is the more likely it is it will pick up interference and add noise to the telephone line connection. In that case use a twisted pair standard telephone cable, the kind normally used inside walls, to the nearest wall jack, a connection box on the end near the computer that you can plug a standard telephone cable jack into, and a short flat cable to connect to the DSL modem. Check for line noise - pick up a phone on the same line when you are having connection problems - you may hear noises or static, but the noise may not be audible to your hearing. Filters not in all connections or regular telephone devices to the same phone line - e.g. you will lose the DSL connection if a phone call comes in to a phone on the same line that has no blocking filter in it's connection to the same line. In the case of a phone, you can probably still use it if it has no blocking filter, but you will probably hear a noise when you pick up the phone. ........ "...i use dsl modem. i dont remember if ive ever tried resetting it..." The problem is if the DSL or ADSL or cable modem loses a connection, or develops a poor connection, there is usually no indication at all from the leds on the front of it that something is wrong, unless the cable connection goes completely dead. Often rebooting the computer will force a good modem connection to be established, sometimes it won't. You usually don't have to reboot the computer - you just reboot the modem to force it to establish a good connection. I have to do that occaisionally. It happens most often on weekends for my ISP, because that is more likely to be when they do maintenance as fewer business connections would be affected. Some modems have a reset button (NOT the one that is often recessed that is used to reset the modems or combo router/modems configuration to defaults), or a power switch or button that can turn it off/on, or the power pack jack that provides DC voltage to them can be briefly disconnected, reconnected. Or you can turn off/on the AC power source to the modem, but of course is preferable to be able to do that without also shutting off the power to the computer. In any of those cases it takes usually at least 15 seconds for the DSL or ADSL or cable connection to be actually working, with the leds lit up as they should be when the connection is good, or longer if the ISP is having problems at that moment. Rarely, you may have to reboot the computer as well. "....it will just stop working and when i click diagnose problems it says my winsock is having an error or something...." That's just a generic message you get when the connection is lost. I find clicking on that absolutely useless. There is almost always nothing actually wrong with your Winsock if you can connect at all most of the time.

i dont know, even though you said that it cant be 100 percent reliable, before this started happening it was 100 percent reliable and i dont see how it would just go to this after being good for so long