Well, this time I believe I have a definitive resolution to my problem.

My command line looked like the following:

"C:\CURL\"curl --proxy 155.55.555.1:80 --proxy-user id:passwd -F
"txtUserName=user_name" -F "txtPassword=password" -F "txtDomain=xxx" -F
"file1=@Customer.txt" -F "fileType=CUSTOMER" https://staging/upload.asp

I had not indicated in my previous emails that the quotes were even in
there, entirely my fault. Hard to help when I don't include all the data.
Anyhow, I habitually put quotes in any bat files I write to account for
spaces in directory names. Curl was executed, but somehow the quotes
indicated to curl to try sending to http://curl. When I said "trying to
post to http://curl first", I was just trying to interpret my Ethereal trace
file, which sent this request to my proxy server:
POST http://curl HTTP/1.1
in the info column

My proxy tried to resolve the address and failed. It would then sometimes
try to connect to my true target, https://staging/upload.asp, but wasn't
always successful.

So a cautionary tale of user error, everything is working now.

Thank you

Aaron

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004, Meyer, Aaron wrote:

> Can anyone explain why it would try posting to http://curl first?

Because you have a curl with a built-in trojan you downloaded from
w4arez.com?

Seriously: you are wrong. curl does not try to to post to http://curl first.

I don't even understand what you mean with "try posting to http://curl
first".
Are you saying that it resolves the host name 'curl' and sends a HTTP POST
reequest to that server?

If so, check what your .curlrc (or _curlrc) file contains.

--