Netscape was unable to create network socket connection

[anxi80]

i had a person call to my work and say they were able to dial in successfully, but as soon as they open up netscape, he gets the message:

Netscape was unable to create network socket connection. There may be insufficient system resources or the network may be down.

usually, i associate this problem on windows with a corrupted winsock registry entry, as that has resolved the problem in the past. delete the winsock2 folder from the registry, reinstall DUN, and the winsock2 folder is recreated and the problem is resolved. problem is, this time around, the guy is seeing these problems on win xp. had him create a new connection, yet to no avail. any help or anyone familiar with this problem? he originally had win98 and upgraded to win xp. i went through an xp system and saw that indeed the same registry key is there, but how would i go about recreating it, because of no DUN? the only other option i can think of is resetting the tcp/ip stack using the: "netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt" command, but thats kind of risk because i would have deleted the key just to see it not work. any help or light shed would really be appreciated. thank you.

 

[rbayer]

Start by having him try to ping something. I've run into a lot of netscape issues with this error where setting the proxy setting seems to fix it. Anyway, is this just a netscape problem or does he get similar errors from other apps?

 

[OZEE]

^^ Like he said...

I've seen this before and it was proxy related. If he can ping to something from CMD, then it's proxy. If he can't, then it's likely network settings (DUN like you said.)

 

[anxi80]

im sorry, i forgot to mention that bit. foolish me. i did have him connect and try to ping our server, and all it sent all the packets, but they didnt come back, so no, he was unable to ping any addresses. just to make sure no complications with our server, i did the same, and i received all of them back.

as far as him getting the same problem with similiar apps, he doesnt quite get the same message with netscape, he just gets the 'page cannot be displayed' window. with outlook (his e-mail client), it just times out without finding the mail server. he described it to me as like netscape opening and not even trying to find a web page, the error message shows up immediately after opening up the application. it doesnt even try to resolve his home page or anything, it just shows up within seconds of launching netscape.

ill try and check his proxy settings, but if its ok, then any other suggestions? the only other suggestion is having him bring his system in and me taking a look at it. im really tempted to try and fix that corrupted registry key, because its worked like a charm for errors like this in the past, but the instructions call for reinstalling DUN, and on win xp, there is no DUN. so i dont know, if anyone knows how to recreate a winsock2 registry key, that would be something viable to try.

thanks again everyone, i appreciate any and all help.

 

[anxi80]

ok, here's an update. i deleted the winsock2 and winsock entries out of the registry like i planned, reset the tcp/ip stack. the problem still persists, but i got the system to ping an address now. i just tried removing all firewalls and network connections, reinstalling winxp over again over the older version. problem still persists.

so any other ideas or hints? right now im contemplating a format and clean install of win xp. client said he had everythign backed up, but i kind of dont want to pursue that route. but other than, im stuck. oh well...