set the http_proxy environment variable if that applies and try again...

C:\DOS\RUN>set http_proxy=http://proxy.innotech.com:8080
C:\DOS\RUN>ppm search XML
[download]

I'd bet money on it.

Thank you kindly for the suggestion, but that doesn't seem to work either. After setting the proxy (copy & paste of your instruction) then a search, the response is,

Searching in Active Repositories
Error: No valid repositories:
Error: 500 Can't connect to proxy.innotech.com:8080 <Bad hostname 'proxy.innotech.com:8080)
Error: 500 Can't connect to proxy.innotech.com:8080 <Bad hostname 'proxy.innotech.com:8080)

For reference, I am behind a wireless router, if that makes any difference?

But the problem doesn't seem to be an access issue. I just tried defining a local repository, then disabled the remote respositories. Then I downloaded the DBI file and put it in the local repository. Now when I do a search ppm lists the DBI.ppd file that it found in the local repository. Yet still, when I do "install DBI" or even "install 1" (refering to the module it just found and listed as #1), I get the same hang, no response.

Any other thoughts? Thanks again! jdk

FYI -- You don't work for innotech. Innotech was the company featured in "Office Space", perhaps the greatest Software Development Spoof of all time, that (if you work in Software) actually strikes pretty close to home. You should watch it -- they show it on Comedy Central quite a bit.

What I mean to say is, that was an example -- The proxy actually has to be inside your organization.

they took my stapler...

Just want to add that your proxy server most certainly need a user name and password. There are three parameters you need to set: http_proxy, http_proxy_user and http_proxy_pass.

You need to find out the proxy server used by your company. To find out the proxy server, check the proxy settings of your Internet Explorer.

If the proxy in your internet explorer is set to automatic, it means your network is using the WPAD (Windows Proxy Auto Discovery) protocol. Open the internet explorer, and type in: http://wpad/wpad.dat, which will download the proxy configuration script. Read the script to get the proxy server settings.

Have you tried it with the .ppd extension? I mean something like ppm>install DBI.ppd.

Every so often, Active State is either down, or suffering the effects of their build process going awry, or has done some random reorganization.

http://ppm.activestate.com/BuildStatus/5.8-A.html gives the status of their 5.8. build. (DBI is shown as failing on Windows, but here's a .zip you can download and install manually in http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/8xx-builds-only/Windows/.)

Any ideas? Any assistance greatly appreciated.

I think flyingmoose may have hit a bullseye with this one. I just was successful install DBI under the conditions you just described. In fact I celebrated by installing DBD::mysql right after that.