Repair WinXP or ??

A few nights ago I somehow got into a nest of spyware that had both Ad-aware and PestPatrol working overtime trying to control. This morning I ran a scan with PestPatrol to clean out the varmits...there were many. After cleaning out the offending pests, I restarted the computer, per the PestPatrol's instructions. I lost all networking functionality (either going out to the Internet or trying to see another computer on my peer-to-peer hookup). Subsequently running WinSockFix.exe brought back TCP/IP functionality. However...

I'm set up to work in a domain so I connect via a tunnel to my company's servers in New Mexico. My TCP/IP problem, although now running again, still plagues me with respect to connecting with Outlook to their e-mail server. It just doesn't seem to stay connected properly. I'm thinking about running a repair for WinXP, but don't know whether it will screw up the domain setup. Is it a problem?

My company is running a Windows 2000 server. I once tried re-installing the O/S (WinXP) on another computer like mine, connecting via a tunnel to the server 1500 miles away. It's a "Catch-22"...without the domain name, the tunnel wouldn't connect, but the domain has to be present to install WinXP with a domain. The tunneling software doesn't work in DOS, so the box had to be hauled to New Mexico and re-installed while networked to the server. I wish I knew another way in case I blow it.

When it comes to my e-mail, if I close Outlook and the tunnel, then re-open the tunnel, then Outlook, everything works the first time. Outlook establishes itself with the Exchange Server and mail is transferred both ways. However, when Outlook re-establishes itself with the Exchange Server a second time, the whole system hangs and Outlook finally reports that it cannot find the Exchange Server. Because of that, I figure I have no choice by to try performing a repair on WinXP. I even uninstalled Outlook and re-installed it, with no luck.

One last thing...I'm running Ad-watch 6.0 and PestPatrol 4.3. I've had Ad-watch running without a problem for nearly a year. I just put PestPatrol on two or three weeks ago, but I didn't have any problems until I was using PestPatrol the middle of last week to remove that bunch of spyware/adware. After removal, when PestPatrol told me to reboot, is when all hell broke loose with the TCP/IP problem and now this with Outlook.

Right now, I'm all out of ideas... :sad:

Why is the fix the first thing that should have been tried? I focused too much on the TCP/IP problem, where the problem actually happened to be in the tunneling software... :knife:

After resetting TCP/IP per a MSKB article, reinstalling Outlook, etc., etc., I removed, rebooted, then reinstalled the tunneling software. Problem solved. I need a drink... :drink:

Me too....after just reading your post :devil: