It is quite possible that the Winsock LSPs are damaged. When such a bit of code is removed/damaged/changed, the Winsock LSP stack must be repaired.
For
Windows XP, Service Pack 2, do this, at a command prompt:
Firstly:
netsh diag gui
a window from the help and support system will pop-up select the 'scan system' option and then examine the results.
If it looks like things are broken in the LSP stack then:-
netsh winsock reset
enter
and then restart machine.
Hope this helps! I'll think some more when I'm more awake
MS