Lost network connection after IPX installed

I lost my network connection after installing IPX on 2 different computers today, both running Win XP Pro. Computer 1 is connected to an Arescom DSL modem via USB and connected to network to share the internet connection. I wanted to install IPX/SPX on the 2 computers to play some old network games. After installing IPX, I still coundnt join a game, so both were rebooted.

On reboot computer 1 failed to connect to the internet. No WAN activity and on further inspection it wasnt getting a proper IP address from the modem. It wouldnt talk to the modem on usb or ethernet. I removed IPX and rebooted again, still nothing. I tried a direct connect to computer 2, same thing, uninstalled IPX, rebooted, still nothing. I tried a direct connect to computer 3, a laptop that was not involved in the IPX attempt and it would communicate perfectly. The modem was set up on dhcp and the nic was set to 192.168.0.1 for connection sharing. Comp 2 was on dhcp to connect to comp 1. After the problem, the computers wouldnt see each other at all. I put comp 2 to manual and could get them seeing each other again, could file share but still no luck getting either to talk to the modem.

Computer 2 has System Restore turned on and after a restore to yesterdays profile, it works fine on an ethernet connection to the modem but still doesnt work on USB. Computer 1 did not have System Restore turned on, so I cant restore it. I tried removing the driver for the nic and rebooting, reinstalling the drivers and protocols, no change. I installed the LSP dll fix for McAfee Virus scan since I do run McAfee, nothing.

Computer 2 did get a message "McAfee winsock filter detected that your windows sockets protocols were changed or updated and you may have to restart to access your network or the internet." which is how I learned of the possible lsp problem, I hoped that was it... I dont know what else to try. I REALLY dont want to have to wipe comp 1 and do a fresh install but I dont know what else to do. Any help would be appreciated.

Martie

 

Howdy Martie...

How comfortable are you editing the registry ?

If you're ok with it try this...

Open regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\
and delete toe Winsock2 key ( or rename it )...

Next click to highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, click on File - Load Hive, browse to C:\Windows\Repair, locate the file called system ( there shouldn't be an extension ), double click on it, here you should see a box asking for a name type in xpuser ( you can use any name you wish, but for now we're using xpuser ) and ok...

Now open up a command prompt and type in...

reg copy HKLM\xpuser\ControlSet001\Services\WinSock2 HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2 /s /f

This should copy the key's from the backup registry

This may or may not solve it, not sure what IPX/SPX does to this key...

 

Also note that there should be a space between winsock2 and HKLM...

 

Thanks for the idea Jedi Master, but no luck there either. I did have a backup of my registry from about 3 weeks ago and having nothing else to try, I re-imported it and still no love. Any other ideas out there? Does System Restore make a log file of what it changed?