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!

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