1st want to thank the many posts that help lead me to full success. It was a combo of events listed below. Needed all steps. Good news is I did NOT need to reinstall XP or use WINSOCKFIX utility.
System
Win XP Home Edition.
Home Wireless Network 801.11b
Installed Adware6 to attempt to eradicate Spyware
Norton AntiVirus Installed
Peer to Peer Network. Using One PC as "server" which connects directly internet and provides access to internet for client PC's (ie. not access point or router)
Symptoms. XP Client PC's on Wireless Network running very slow. Finally will no longer connect to wireless network. IP address on my "server" PC is 192. ... but IP address on clients is 169. .... Can't ping server. However, I knew WI-FI hardware is working because still have WI-FI connectivity to client PC's on network running Win98SE.
Steps
Virus Check
1. Run Norton AntiVirus - No viruses found
Adware/Spyware Eradication
2. Start->Control Panel>Remove Software. Viewed all programs and using Google Search as a reference removed all programs that were spyware/adware
3. Used Tasked Manager (cntrl-alt-del) and MSCONFIG (using Start-Run-CMD line) to view startup and process see all adware/spyware. Again used google to discern which programs/processes were adware/spyware.
4. Adware Spyware still running included TV Media and Winupdtr. Deselected these programs from MSCONFIG startup. Deleted files in C:\program Files\ and deleted keys from registry using regedit per postings above... but did not permanently eradicate TV Media
5. Manually removed TV Media registry keys using instructions at
www.kephyr.com and/or posting above. But also must immediately do step 6 below.
6. Utilized posting that said TV Media was linked with Explorer. Must "Kill" Explorer Process in task manager, Killed Explorer, then used cntl-alt-delete to bring up Task Mgr again. Start CMD line from Task Manager and used CMD line to navigate to c:\Program Files\TV media files. And then delete using delete c:\Program Files\TV Media\*.*
Note to reboot I had to specify which mode to restart in while in MSConfig window. (For some reason my PC would not startup in SAFE mode by tapping F8 during reboot.) 1st selected Diagnostic Startup mode. (Could also go to WIN.BOOT tab to start in SAFE mode.
7. Used MS article "How to Determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" found at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811259 (I did have some corruption).
8. Opened Network Connections window. Right mouse click on Wireless Connections to open properties. Uninstalled Client for Windows, File and Printer Sharing, and deselected TCP/IP items. (Note: there is a posting to manually deinstall TCP/IP. I didn't do it).
9. Reboot.
10. Opened Network Connections. Right mouse click on Wireless Connections to open properties. Install Client for Windows, File and Printer Sharing, and TCP/IP items. Select Wireless tab. Selected Properites and Advanced tab for preferred network and ensure all settings were correct in accordance with postings above (I use WEP enabled)
11. Rerun "Setup a Home or Small Office Network" on client
Still had 169... IP address on client PC. The final solution not found above was Drumroll please......
12. Rerun "Setup a Home or Small Office Network" on my Server PC. IP address on Server changed from 192.68.0.1 to 192.168.0.1 and full connectivity was restore between all PC's on network and with the adware gone PC's are fast.