PPM4 No Packages

mikasue has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I just downloaded ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin2. When I go to the ppm GUI no packages show up (installed nor available).

I heard rumor that the default repo url was incorrect, so I deleted it and added this one to no avail:

http://ppm4.activestate.com/MSWin32-x86/5.8/819

I've added other repos and they all report 0 packages. I even used ppm -shell and entered ppm repo and it showed the repositories with 0 packages.

Has anyone had this problem with the PPM GUI? Can anyone give me suggestions on how to populate this GUI with packages? I must admit I did install perl in a directory other than C:\. Would this have any bearings on where the packages are being pulled from?
Thanks!

Update:

Using the shell I see a status:500. Don't know if this is an error message. Anyone know?

Downloading ActiveState packlist...status 500
Downloading www.bribes.org packlist...status 500

Comment on PPM4 No Packages

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PPM4 No Packages by randyk (Parson) on Nov 04, 2006 at 01:49 UTC
If you use a proxy server or are behind a firewall, there may be some settings that ppm needs; see the ActivePerl FAQ entry on this issue for some suggestions.	[reply]
Re: PPM4 No Packages by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Nov 03, 2006 at 22:07 UTC
The "status 500" message is telling you that the server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request. The packlist for the GUI isn't downloading the way it should. I would reinstall ActiveState, but this time use Camelpack---it's an installer for ActivePerl with DevC++, and it installs nmake for you.	[reply]