Access to key servers through athenticating proxy server

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

I have a firewall that enforces policy of accessing Internet by using 
proxy server only (no direct connections to outside world from internal 
network).  The proxy uses authentication (username and password) to 
limit access only to some users.  I was able to find at least one key 
server that supports connections over port 80, but I couldn't get 
through the proxy.

The problem is that when using proxy server, gpg doesn't seem to support 
proxy authentication.  It simply prints that key was not found on the 
key server, instead of prompting me for proxy username and password.

Even if I place username/password into http_proxy environment variable 
('http://username:password@myproxy.mydomain.com:port'), it still doesn't 
work.  In this case it attempts to connect to proxy named 
'username.mydomain.com' (obviously it is unable to correctly parse URL 
that defines the proxy server, so it interprets it as if it was 
'http://username').  I don't like placing password there, but I wanted 
to try if that would work.

Are there any plans to make a bit more robust proxy support for 
accessing key servers?

[ off-topic ]
I've also attempted to access same proxy server using Enigmail 
(Thunderbird version).  Supposedly it should have its own code for 
accessing key server, and should honor proxy settings from FireFox.  But 
that hasn't worked either.

-- 
Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic at pbl.ca>    Pollard Banknote Limited
Systems Administrator                           1499 Buffalo Place
Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276                     Winnipeg, MB  R3T 1L7