sorry if i am being a little thick here. i have tried putting the proxy details back in again. I know that the proxy details themselves are correct. the Flickr code still doesn't work if i put the proxy details in (same errror as before, connection refused). I need to work out a way of telling $response to use the proxy settings, but the ways i try tell me that i can't use an object of Flickr::API::Response. could i have another clue or hint? cheers