One of my Windows 2000 servers was recently attacked by a virus.  The
virus (or deleting the virus) seems to have knocked out my Winsock
software.  Each time I try to connect to the Internet, in any way, I
get and 'unknown error'.  I've tried 'upgrading' windows several times
with no success.  I can't wipe the system and need to get it back up. 
Any thought as to how I can go about doing this?  Thank you.

john...

I know the feeling you're having - I've been there, and
I should be able to get you back to normal in no time.

There's a program called LSP-Fix that should be able to
do the job. If not, there are further instructions for
the worst-case scenario that should do the job.

LSP-Fix home and download page:
http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

The instructions in the accompanying text file explain
what's gone wrong, and how the program fixes things:

"This program attempts to correct Internet connection
 problems resulting from buggy or improperly-removed
 Layered Service Provider (LSP) software. When you
 start LSP-Fix, it will read the list of LSP modules
 from the Windows registry and verify that each module
 is present. If a module is missing, it is placed on
 the "Remove" list for removal. Advanced users can
 override suggested removals in the "Advanced" area.
 When "Finish" is pressed, the undesired entries are
 removed, and the remaining entries in the registry
 are renumbered to make them consecutive. The total
 module counts are then updated. Finally, the program
 will display a summary of the changes that were made."

There's much more in the file, and you may want to read
it completely, before using the program, but for the 
vast majority of users, you can just start the program
and click the 'Finish' button, and you'll be done!
You'll probably need to reboot your computer afterward,
before testing your connection.

If, by some chance, that doesn't do the trick, there
is a way to remove and restore the default Winsock
tree, without re-installing Windows (which probably
wouldn't fix it, anyway). That's covered on this page:
http://cexx.org/winsock.htm

Hopefully, you won't need to go there, but if you do,
and you need any further input on the process, let me
know.


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sublime1-ga

Excellent answer by this researcher!  He answered all of my questions
and I was able to fix my computer within minutes of reading his post. 
Thank you for your time.