SPUG: Ftp-free CPAN::shell usage?

[ced at carios2.ca.boeing.com]

>A student in today's class is wondering if it's possible to use 
> CPAN or CPANPLUS from behind firewalls that don't allow FTP traffic. 
> I know that curl and lynx can be used to download the indices, but I 
> don't know if any non-FTP protocols like these are usable for downloading 
> the actual modules.  What's the story?

Long ago through sheer trial and pain, I discovered CPAN 
seems to have an affinity for FTP. So never whisper the
"F" word.

Somewhere in CPAN's configure dialogue. I accepted defaults 
until I got to the proxy questions:

  ftp_proxy?    # I input:   http://proxy.somewhere.com:xxxxx
  http_proxy?   # same URL:  http://proxy.somewhere.com:xxxxx


The trick was avoiding FTP url's everywhere to force HTTP. 

Hope this helps,
--
Charles DeRykus