# Problem installing gems **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [8 April 2005 13:30 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/problem-installing-gems/17505 "2005-04-08T13:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robert\_Isaacs1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Robert\_Isaacs1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Robert_Isaacs1)\ **Post date:** [8 April 2005 13:30 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/problem-installing-gems/17505/1 "2005-04-08T13:30:16Z")
I am having a strange problem on one of my desktop machines trying to update the list of rubygems, or indeed, to install any remote gems. When I try to execute the command: "gem update -r" on the machine, I get the following message:     Upgrading installed gems...     Updating Gem source index for: [http://gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org) and it freezes there forever. One other interesting fact that might be useful is that wget also fails on this desktop as well. It times out on \*sending\* the http request. Granted, I know this fact might make this problem non ruby specific but I think it only started happening after I installed ruby on cygwin. I also installed Ruby with the windows installer. I tried to remove cygwin and reinstall it... all to no avail. I'd really like to do some development on this machine, so any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance! Robert Isaacs ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Weirich1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@Jim\_Weirich1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Jim_Weirich1)\ **Post date:** [8 April 2005 14:09 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/problem-installing-gems/17505/2 "2005-04-08T14:09:31Z")
Robert Isaacs said: [...] > I get the following message: > >     Upgrading installed gems... >     Updating Gem source index for: [http://gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org) > > and it freezes there forever. > > One other interesting fact that might be useful is that wget also fails > on this desktop as well. It times out on \*sending\* the http request. Hmmm ... what is the proxy situation on that particular box? Browsers tend to pick up the proxy configuration automatically, but many tools (perhaps including wget) need a http\_proxy environment variable set. > **ยทยทยท** > > -- > -- Jim Weirich jim@weirichhouse.org [http://onestepback.org](http://onestepback.org) > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, > not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)