The symptoms when Winsock2 is damaged show when you try to release and renew the IP address using IPCONFIG…

And you get the following error message:

An error occurred while renewing interface ‘Internet’: An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.

Also Internet Explorer may give the following error message:
The page cannot be displayed Additionally, you may have no IP address or no Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, and you may be receiving IP packets but not sending them.

There are two easy ways to determine if Winsock2 is damaged:

From the XP source files, go to the Support / Tools directory

Winsock Test Method 1:

Run netdiag /test:winsock

The end should say Winsock test ….. passed

Winsock Test Method 2:

Run Msinfo32
Click on the + by Components
Click on the by Network
Click on Protocol
There should be 10 sections if the Winsock2 key is ok
MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
RSVP UDP Service Provider
RSVP TCP Service Provider
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip…

If the names are anything different from those in this list, then likely Winsock2 is corrupted and needs to be repaired.
If you have any 3rd party software installed, the name MSAFD may be changed.
There should be no fewer than 10 sections.