You should try to repair/reset Winsock in Windows if you are having problems with your network controller. I’m having some major problems with my internet connection at the momemt. Sometimes, I can’t seem to enable/disable the local area connection adapter.
If you also regularly have connectivity issues and your network connections is acting crazy, you might want to do some troubleshooting. Let’s rock!
1. General Troubleshooting Before Resetting Winsock
In general, you should always make sure that your hardware is working properly and you don’t have any corrupt/damage files on your drive. Plus it’s a good habit to update your drivers frequently.
- clean your PC of viruses, trojans
- run a chkdsk /f /r to make sure you don’t have any disk erros
- run sfc.exe /scannow to validate your system files
- install latest network drivers
2. Reset/Renew TCP/IP connection:
The first commands you should try when you encounter network connectivity issues are:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
/release will terminate all of your TCP/IP connections
/renew will establish a new TCP/IP connection
Sidenote: Both commands only work if your network adapter is configured for DHCP. DHCP will auto-assign you an IP-address.
Finally, if that doesn’t work you could try to reset your winsock catalog.
3. Repair & Reset Winsock Catalog
I wasn’t even able to remove my NVIDIA network controller. My theory was that my winsock entries were somehow damaged.
Winsock entries tells Windows how to access your network services. Additionally, your TCP/IP protocol can be corrupted. The TCP/IP protocol is a stack of 4 layers that includes several transport layers, but when this stack is corrupt you will constantly have connectivity issues.
netsh winsock reset catalog (reset winsock entries)
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit (reset TCP/IP stack)
This command works in Windows 7, 8 and 10 but might also work on Windows 11
Winsock Registry Keys
Advanced users will find the winsock registry keys at:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2]
Thanks you very much for this tips.
I was able to reconnect to the Internet!!
I juste a small batch to do the job:
============================
ipconfig /release
pause
ipconfig /renew
pause
netsh winsock reset catalog
pause
netsh int ip reset reset.log
pause
=====================
Great idea Evelyne. Very handy batch if you don’t want to enter the commands again.
I’ve created a bat file and uploaded it to our site.
Download Renew IP + Reset Winsock Batch File
I have recently had a great deal of trouble with my internet, since upgrading to ADSL2+ with DODO. I play World Of Warcraft, and have been disconnected from the internet repeatedly in the last 2 weeks. Lag spikes are ridiculous!!!! Dodo went throught several elimination processes with me.. e.g. power cycling the modem…. resetign the modem etc. Also rang Netgear and talked to them…nothing has worked ….yet. Have done all the security processes…e.g. Run Antivirus scans… spyware scans….checked settings etc.
OK…. I have run your options above….going to restart the PC and see what happens. My only other alternative is to reinstall WoW, in case there is a corrupt file etc in the system….
If you have any other advice or want to know all my PC details etc, please let me know.. I am hoping your advice and steps will help.
I’ve tried every step and still can’t browse. Please advise. Thanks
jon, we have a pretty extensive checklist if you can’t connect to the internet or browse any websites.
Please read this article:
Browser Not Working Or Connecting To Internet: Checklist
Could you please post if anything works on the list, would appreciate it! Thanks.
netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit
Wonderful. Thanks. I’ve been ages trying to resolve my network problem. I used to have to disable and re-enable my Realtek PCIe GBI Family Controller every few minutes, as the connection would suddenly turn super slow, virtually as though it were disconnected. I’m using Windows 7. Now it seems to be resolved. Thanks!
I ran sfc.exe /scannow and it says:
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
What should I do now?
Troy, look into the CBS.log file (open it with notepad) and then read our tutorial “how to enter safe mode”, simply hit F8 on boot up and then run sfc.exe while you are in safe mode..
Is that error related to a corrupt winsock? You probably cold-reset your PC a few times too often ..
Yes, I have cold reset my PC a few times.
I booted from the Windows 7 DVD choose repair and command prompt and ran: sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows this comes back fine with no errors.
I than restarted my computer and ran sfc /scannow as before and got the same corrupt files message?
I read how to repair these crrupt files but it only mentioned doing it one at a time. That would take forever. Is there a faster way to repair them?
I read this article and have a similar problem. I went to bed with my pc working fine, got up to find it would not connect to internet or office mail. I can however get into the pc via logmein.com . What could be my problem and how do I get it back on the internet? When I cmd/ipconfig I see the DHCP address???
Thanks
I did reset and restart my winsoc settings following the instructions above so thank you very much. I did had a hard time getting my administrator window working. Once I enabled how to turn on my administrator setting then I waw able to input your winsoc resetting instructions and it did work. My internet is working like a champ once again. Thanks
Hello!!
I have a rooter and 3 computers conected to it.
One computer works fine and other 2 not.
I tryed to change cables and the computer that works fine works with any cable and others never work.
All computers has win7 and bitdefender.
I tryed to fix winsock as said and nothing happen.
No ping answer from the 2 computers.
What would you advise?
Best regards
Miguel
I have Windows 7 and it was connected to net but no data was coming in.
Internet Explore said no connection.
Ping was working and when I tested with windows repair automatic it said connection is working.
I installed Ubuntu just for testing and it get easily to different web sites. So I knew hardware was working. If you must make partition to you hard drive to get free space for Ubuntu it can make Windows recovery difficult or impossible.
I did everything before trying this.
NOW I am very happy. After many days Windows is working again.
Very BIG thanks for you!
Hannu
Thanks it works great for me. I couldn’t get on a wireless network and security center was not active. Those problems are fixed!