yum 2.1.x fails when using firewall

[daa]

> when using what? an  http1.0 authenticating proxy? Which proxy where?
> If this is a problem specific to the proxy you are using how does
> anyone reproduce this?
> Can you browse to the the primary.xml.gz file via another browser that
> can use the
> the same http proxy? 

this is a HTTP1.0 authenticating proxy (Sidewinder 5.2 
http://www.securecomputing.com)

browser ( IE or mozilla) has no problem getting to the dir and file)

dave