Cannot browse http site, only https sites

Searching has resulted in lots of posts on this subject; however,
nothing seems to work. The machine with the problem is a Windows 2003
server. Running a diagnostic in IE results in "Error attempting to
validate the Winsock base providers: 2. Not all base service
providers entries could be found in the winsock catalog. A rest is
needed". I've tried 'netsh int ip rest a.txt' and 'netsh winsock
reset catalog'. I also have a Windows XP Pro PC doing the same thing
and I have tried the winsockfix app on this machine in addition to the
other previously mentioned stuff...nothing I do on either seems to
work.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

What is the background to this fault?
Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.co.uk

 

I'm not sure what you are asking Anthony. If it's the history, I can
tell you that I had someone give me a call indicating that they could
not browse the internet on either of the 2 machines I mentioned; one a
XP pro and one a 2003 server. After some searching on the web I
decided to try accessing https sites on these machines and that
worked. All solutions I could find on the web seemed to point me to
the commands I mentioned I tried. Can't seem to get anything to work
and now getting desperate.