Can't Connect to Internet

[Addijhaq]

okay, so i leave for visiting the family on chrismas and my internet is running fine. I come back home, and my instant messenger is signed off, which is odd. So, i tried to reconnect, and it says it can't. I open up my internet explorer and it says it cant display the page. I click on the detect network settings and i get the same thing: page cannont be displayed. So, i restart my computer and while it's booting back up, the destop wallpaper appears, and then it sits for a while, it takes a very long time for my computer to boot up. But when everything finally loads, i get a message saying: an existing cri\tical commjunications file (winshock32.dll) is either old or invalid. and that my active sync to cannot establish a connection to my hanheld. And that it wont work until wsock32.dll is replaced.It also says in the message, that i can correct this problem by reinstalling windows or replacing the file. And other programs wont load either due to "socket errors". So, i think i have a .dll problem. OKay, now, on to my second dliemna. I try to load my norton disk doctor and when i try to find problems with my harddisk drives, it tells me: another program or administrator only has access to these drives at this time. It then says i can schedule disk checkups at restart, which i did,and it didnt help.i used windoctor, this works fine but... It finds errors, then fixes them, but everytime i restart and run the windoctor, it finds more errors, and i kept fixing and restarting for about and hour and no help, I reallly dont think it's fixing the problems it's finding. So then, I decide to reinstall norton systemworks, because i think maybe the software i have is infected with wutever i have on my computer. I put the disc in and load it, and click on the install button, the setup starts to load then yet another window comes up and says : the system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation. WHAT IS GOING ON? OKay, so far i figure someone has screwed with my admin settings so i can't access my antivirus stuff, and has also screwed with my wsock32.dll so i cant communicate online. Some settings have been totally messed with. I dunno wut to do, i'm so lucky that my network isrunning fine, because im on my handheld right now. So, it's not my network or cable modem, it's sumthing on my computer.
My specs are, alienware . 1.8 ghz pent 4 . 256 rd ram . 40 gig hd . 120 hd . xp .

[SearanoX]

Methinks you might be having hard disk problems. The most obvious thing to do is reformat, but that takes a long time, you'll have to back up your files, etc.. There may also be something physically wrong with the drive.

I'm not really an expert at this kind of thing, so you should probably wait before reformatting or doing anything else until someone can either second (or third) my opinion, or give you a different solution.

[Wiggo]

There could be a couple of things goin' on here so 1st I'd run Memtest86 to be sure that the memory is ok and then I'd head over to the hard drive's manufacturer's website and get their diagnostic software to check the condition of the drive. The other thing could be a virus is runnin' rampant thru your system alterin' system files in which case fdiskin' the whole hard drive will be necessary to be sure that its totally eradicated.