after much frustration, the following worked for me:

  1. cpan <-- answer "no" to initial setup.
    This allows (auto configured) Config.pm file (see below) to be initialised. Previously I think this file had "1;" or something helpful in it!
  2. I then added: 
      'dontload_hash' => {"Net::FTP" => 1, "LWP" =>1 }, # disable Net::FTP
+ and LWP which usually hang
to: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/CPAN/Config.pm - see section:
$CPAN::Config = {
...

    [download]
    but this alone did not seem to do the job. I'm still not sure if this step had any effect.
  3. (in cpan shell) 
    o conf urllist http://ppm.activestate.com/CPAN http://cpan.perl.org
o conf commit
quit

    [download]

worked for me - thanks!

20100528 Janitored by Corion: Added formatting, code tags, as per Writeup Formatting Tips

In reply to Re^4: Problem Starting CPAN Shell with ftp.perl.org by Anonymous Monk
in thread Problem Starting CPAN Shell with ftp.perl.org by monkfan

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