diff -rup drupal-4.7.2-orig/includes/common.inc drupal-4.7.2-proxy/includes/common.inc
--- drupal-4.7.2-orig/includes/common.inc	2006-05-15 22:53:26.000000000 +0200
+++ drupal-4.7.2-proxy/includes/common.inc	2006-06-26 23:07:27.000000000 +0200
@@ -368,7 +368,12 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, $head
     case 'http':
       $port = isset($uri['port']) ? $uri['port'] : 80;
       $host = $uri['host'] . ($port != 80 ? ':'. $port : '');
-      $fp = @fsockopen($uri['host'], $port, $errno, $errstr, 15);
+      if (variable_get('proxy_name', '')) {
+        // Use proxy settings
+	$fp = @fsockopen(variable_get('proxy_name', ''), variable_get('proxy_port', ''));
+      } else {
+        $fp = @fsockopen($uri['host'], $port, $errno, $errstr, 15);
+      }
       break;
     case 'https':
       // Note: Only works for PHP 4.3 compiled with OpenSSL.
@@ -407,7 +412,11 @@ function drupal_http_request($url, $head
     $defaults[$header] = $header .': '. $value;
   }
 
-  $request = $method .' '. $path ." HTTP/1.0\r\n";
+  if (variable_get('proxy_name', '')) {
+    $request = $method .' '. $uri['scheme'] .'://'. $uri['host'].$path .' '. "HTTP/1.1\r\n";  
+  } else {
+    $request = $method .' '. $path ." HTTP/1.0\r\n";
+  }
   $request .= implode("\r\n", $defaults);
   $request .= "\r\n\r\n";
   if ($data) {
diff -rup drupal-4.7.2-orig/modules/system.module drupal-4.7.2-proxy/modules/system.module
--- drupal-4.7.2-orig/modules/system.module	2006-06-02 00:08:06.000000000 +0200
+++ drupal-4.7.2-proxy/modules/system.module	2006-06-26 23:07:41.000000000 +0200
@@ -263,7 +263,14 @@ function system_view_general() {
     '#type' => 'textfield', '#title' => t('Slogan'), '#default_value' => variable_get('site_slogan', ''),
     '#description' => t('The slogan of this website. Some themes display a slogan when available.')
   );
-
+  $form['general']['proxy_name'] = array(
+    '#type' => 'textfield', '#title' => t('Proxy hostname'), '#default_value' => variable_get('proxy_name', ''),
+    '#description' => t('The name of the http proxy-server if one is needed to access the outside world')
+  );
+  $form['general']['proxy_port'] = array(
+    '#type' => 'textfield', '#title' => t('Proxy port'), '#default_value' => variable_get('proxy_port', ''),
+    '#description' => t('The port of the http proxy-server')
+  );
   $form['general']['site_mission'] = array(
     '#type' => 'textarea', '#title' => t('Mission'), '#default_value' => variable_get('site_mission', ''),
     '#description' => t('Your site\'s mission statement or focus.')