Winsock freezes Visual Basic 6 and windows XP
SYMPTOMS:
When you play an application and connect with winsock everything will work fine but if you stop the app and press play again and try to connect the second time , winsock will take over all the CPU time and VB 6.0  will freeze until terminated by CTRL-ALT-DEL.
i tried to uninstall vb and reinstall and it will not fix it. i applied some winsock fixes on the web and still not, system restore didint seem to help and resinatlling drivers or networking components liek tcpip won't work either.
CAUSE:
Most of the Internet connectivity problems arise out of corrupt Winsock settings. Windows sockets settings may get corrupted due to a networking software installation, old software installation containing older version of wisock in windows xp, spyware( most common now installing Lsps). You may notice errors such as "Page cannot be displayed" or similar, in Internet Explorer. You will be able to get connected to the Internet, but the packets won't transfer back and forth. One of the main cause for these problems is the corruption of Winsock settings. In any case, you may use these methods to repair/reset the Windows Sockets settings to defaults

*FIX:
1) First Fix option(Recommended):could try the winsock fix, try start > run > type cmd > click ok > type "netsh winsock reset catalog" then restart.
2) Second Fix option: on XP you have to go to start>run> type regedit> click on + next to hkey_local_machine> click + next to system> click+ next to currentcontrolset(not controlset001)> click + next to services> scroll to bottom of list and delete winsock and winsock2> restart PC

once its started up again(which it might not do if you have underlying problems) go into control panel then network connections> right click on local area connection 2 or 3 or whatever says globespan on it and click properties> click install> click protocol and press add> click have disk> where it says copy manufacturers files from type C:\windows\inf press ok> click microsoft on the left hand side then choose internet protocol(tcp/ip) and press ok, now ur done. repair the connection if u want but its not that important and will probably fail when trying to renew ip address.

Note that resetting the Winsock using netsh winsock reset catalog command in SP2 removes all the third-party LSPs and restores Winsock to factory default setting.

*MORE INFO ABOUT THE FIX:
Windows XP Service Pack 2 - New Winsock NETSH commands
Two new Netsh commands are available in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

netsh winsock reset catalog

This command resets the Winsock catalog to the default configuration. This can be useful if a malformed LSP is installed that results in loss of network connectivity. While use of this command can restore network connectivity, it should be used with care because any previously-installed LSPs will need to be re-installed.

netsh winsock show catalog

This command displays the list of Winsock LSPs that are installed on the computer.

Also, the new microsoft antispyware has  new tool to view lsp's you can view more info here:Microsoft Antispyware link
and also
Ad-aware asha LSP tool viewer

Download a sample LSP HTML report (6kb Zip)

Resources:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

BY




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Javi