Thanks tirwhan for explanation,
Just wondering whether there is any way to check, whatype of proxy my institute is using?? Exactly same problem I am facing in configuring my CPAN.pm as well. There it seems to connect to ftp.cpan but then fails everytime. And one of the error messages it shows complain about user id and password. Now strange thing is that I can browse the net without any password. Also please tell me what do you mean by manual ftp??Do you mean I should try to ftp to some machine outside the campus?? or to cpan?? if cpan than shouln't I know IP address for cpan server and also the file location there?
For my firefox browser setting; HTTP, SSL, FTP , GOPHER are given same proxies (XXXX) (and port 3128) but SOCKS_host has been left blank. Does this gives any clue???
Now as you understand my level of comfortability with these lingo (ftp/proxy/firewall) could you pl direct me to some online documentation. I tried a few times to get a feel of these things but often found documents hard to understand.
I admire your patience. Thank you for all your help.