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.

Here's to repair winsock2 :
1. Run Regedit
2. Delete the following two registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
3. Restart the computer
4. Go to Network Connections
5. Right click and select Properties
6. Click on the Install button
7. Select Protocol
8. Click on the Add button
9. Click on the Have Disk button
10 Browse to the \Windows\inf directory
11. Click on the Open button
12. Click on the OK button
14. Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
15. Click on the OK button
16. Reboot