Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew how to uninstall and reinstall TCP\IP on a XP Home machine.

In XP the option to uninstall is greyed out because Microsoft considers it a core component of the operating system.

I searched the Microsoft knowledge base and google several times and all I can come up with is using what is called a "NetShell" utility but that the steps for that just sound a little complicated for what should be an easy process.

Anyway just thought this would be the place to go for answers.

Thanks in advance.

Have you tried uninstalling your NIC and removing the network components from there? All should re-install when the drivers are re-added when the O/S finds the NIC again on reboot.

I've uninstalled an re-installed the drivers but its an onboard NIC.

This is just a computer I'm working on for a customer so I can't go out and get a different motherboard. I've installed a 3com NIC card that we had lying around and it give me the same error when ever I do an "ipconif /renew"

error message: "operation was attemped on something that is not a socket"

I found that in the registry I can delete the Winsock and Winsock2
files but I can't figure out how to reinstall them using NetShell which is how the Microsft Knowledge Base suggests how to do it.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817571&Product=winxp

Maybe someone can read this differently and explain to me

Thanx again

GOOD NEWS!!

I solved the problem.

I just ended up exporting the Winsock and Winsock2 files from another machine running XP on to a floppy disk and importing them into the registry on to the other computer.

This seemed to work really well and was very easy once I figured it out so anyone with a TCP\IP issue with XP this is a good way to go about fixing it.