I am a computer user, not a developer. I run Windows XP Media. Recently, I have had the problem that after my computer is on for about an hour or so, it will not connect to the internet using either Firefox or IE. At one point IE reported:"Windows has detected a problem with the Winsock provider catalog on this computer. This catalog allows programs to communicate with this computer across the network. Would you like windows to reset the catalog to the default configuration" When I do so, it restarts the computer and I lose everything I had on it that I had not saved. I do not need to wait for the message. I just restart the computer and I can connect with the internet again. My other computers that are networked through a wireless router do not have this problem. My computer is connected by wire to the router. I had thought it was the ethernet connection and I have replaced the motherboard and the ethernet connection. I thought it was a virius but I have had Dell software people work on it for over 5 hours with no particular change except that my System 32 folder now come up on reboot. I have tried to use system restore but everything back when the computer did not do this has been erased (not by me). My internet provider has no explanation and neither does Dell, my computer manufacturer.
I really do not want to re-format the drives and reinstall the OS along with innumerable programs. I suppose I could clone from a drive I took out of the computer when I upgraded to terrybyte drives (raid 1 configuration). Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Ldwayne

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