Toolbar Broken?

I need help asap

[oaktown]

Today my toolbar started malfunctioning. No matter what site I'm on, the PR bar is grey, not white, just grey. I uninstalled the toolbar and rebooted. I then downloaded the toolber again and installed it. No good, still all grey. I recently (within the last four days) intalled Weatherbug and Spyhunter), so I uninstalled both of them and rebooted. No good, still all grey.

Any help will be hugely appriciated. Thanks in advance.

[Spica]

Check which of the datacenters your hosts file is pointing to. Four of the datacenters are currently offline.

[SlowMove]

you could always try reinstalling your browser.

[oaktown]

Thanks Spica

I checked my hosts file and it points to:

216.239.37.100 toolbarqueries.google.com

which I believe is www-ab.google.com

I checked and that server seems to be up and running. Any other ideas would be most welcome

[oaktown]

Thankyou, SlowMove

I regret to say that I've never had to do this and would be glad to do so, but I have to ask, is there a way to do this without losing my bookmarks? (I am a recent emigre from the Macintosh universe)

[SlowMove]

I think that you are given the option to save bookmarks if you're installing a newer version. I just don't know about saving bookmarks, uninstalling and reinstalling. Another option is to save the bookmarks to a localhost home page so that when you start Internet Explorer, all the links are on that one page.

[thumpcyc]

Hey Oaktown, try removing the line from your host file. the .100 address is being redirected to the bit bucket or somewhere. I do not have an entry, and when I ping toolbarqueries.google.com I get a response from 216.239.53.104, and my toolbar is working.

Might try it before blowing away the browser!

Added Later
If you truly want to save the favorites out of IE, It is a series of shortcuts and folders in the local users profiles, this will change slightly from ms os version to version. sticky me if you want more info.

thumpcyc

thumpcyc

[lorenzinho2]

Oaktown, I had your exact same program, and my hosts file was pointing to .100. I followed thumpcyc's suggestion and wiped out that line - now my toolbar is back in business.

[oaktown]

You guys SO rock! My thanks to each and every one of you! I deleted the offending line from my hosts file, rebooted and yippee! it's back! Another thorn removed from my side. Now about growning hair............

All of you are terrific!

[oaktown]

You guys SO rock! My thanks to each and every one of you! I deleted the offending line from my hosts file, rebooted and yippee! it's back! Another thorn removed from my side. Now about growing hair............

All of you are terrific!

[sparticus]

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how do you check your 'hosts file' - my toolbar is all greyed out as well and I'm trying to fix it..?

[thumpcyc]

Hey Sparticus,

Wanting to know where your hosts file is certainly not a stupid question. It is a very important file, that normally needs no adjustment. On the PC that I am using, the hosts file I am using is located in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc directory.

If you are thinking you need to make a change to your hosts file to fix an issue with the G toolbar, and you do not know where it is, and no-one else has changed your hosts file, then it is probely not the problem. It is probley just G changing DNS for a moment, and had you directed to one of the datacenters that is mia.

The instructions listed above are to fix the hosts file after someone has altered it so that the pc will use the hard coded IP address in the hosts file instead of using DNS to resolve the name to an IP address automaticcaly.

Take my advice, if there is no entry for toolbarqueries in your hosts file, don't alter the hosts file, let G do it job, it will change the IP address of the DNS entry on the fly as it needs to, and you will never know the difference.

The only real reason to change it, is to manually point the toolbar PR queries to single datacenter, to see if you PR has changed on that ONE datacenter, possibly not the one that G thinks you should be using.

Thumpcyc

[sparticus]

Thanks Thumbpcyc,

My Toolbar has been greyed out for ages though - ever since I installed the Google deskbar. I've removed both and re-installed the toolbar but still no luck.

Any ideas? Do I just have to wait for Google to point me in the right direction?

[thumpcyc]

Hey Sparticus,

I do not know your experience level, or what you have tried, so please do not take offense at my suggestions to try to diagnose your problem.

Step. 1
Check The Options of the G toolbar and be sure that the "Pagerank" and "Page Info" check boxes are checked.

If checked, proceed to step 2.

Step. 2
Open a Command, or CMD Prompt (start, run, cmd, press enter)

Type in the cmd window
ping toolbarqueries.google.com
and press enter.
If you get a response from the ping (at the time of this writing, DNS resolved toolbarqueries.google.com to "216.239.57.104"). Then the issue is not with your hosts file, or the ability of your pc to communicate with a google data center.

If you did not get a response from a G datacenter, and you may want to look at your hosts file proceed to step 3.

Step 3
In that cmd window, type in:
c: and press enter
type in
cd\windows\system32\drivers\etc and press enter
type in
edit hosts press enter

this will open the hosts file with the dos editor if it exists.

Look to see if there is any line for toolbarqueries.google.com, If not, then exit without saving, if there is, delete the line, save the file, exit the dos editor.

exit the cmd prompt, reboot and try again.

Or Not.
OS Disclaimer
the location of the hosts file is dependant on the OS, OS Version, and that no-one has made your pc use a remote hosts file, or a hosts file with a different name, with the same disclaimer on the editor.
Starting to ramble now,

Thumpcyc

[sparticus]

Hmm, thanks for that..

The appropriate boxes are checked.

I recieved a response from the Google datacentre (resolved to 216.239.53.104).

There's no entry for toolbarqueries in my host file.

I'm still getting a greyed out PageRank bar...

What's next? Do I report the problem to Google?

[thumpcyc]

Hmmm,
Well you have determined it is not a communications issue(most likely). You said you had already uninstalled both, and reinstalled the toolbar, and it did not help. The only thing I would try next is to uninstall the toolbar again, and then remove everything to do with the two apps that is still left in the registry, and then reinstall. I will not be covering that today ;-)

Ask Google,

Perhaps others here have suggestions you might try,
Sorry,
Thumpcyc