I use R / RStudio at work.  Recently, I tried to download XLConnect package using

install.packages("XLConnect")

However, I got the following error message:

Installing package(s) into 'WORKCOMPUTER SPECIFIC STUFF HERE Documents/R/win-library/2.15'
(as 'lib' is unspecified)
trying URL 'http://www.stats.bris.ac.uk/R/bin/windows/contrib/2.15/XLConnect_0.2-5.zip'
Warning in install.packages :
  InternetOpenUrl failed: 'The operation timed out'
Error in download.file(url, destfile, method, mode = "wb", ...) :
  cannot open URL 'http://www.stats.bris.ac.uk/R/bin/windows/contrib/2.15/XLConnect_0.2-5.zip'
Warning in install.packages :
  download of package 'XLConnect' failed

I think the reason for the problem is that I'm in a corporate environment and our firewall spends 2-3 mins scanning the zip file before releasing it.  I think the solution requires me to tell R to override (what I believe is) the 60 second time-out default setting when you run install.packages.  At least I think install.packages calls download.file  I need to extend the time-out window, so that the firewall can do its thing.

Some notes, which I think are relevant:

Ų  Although I'm working in a corporate environment, I have worked with my IT team to ensure that HTTP/proxy measures allow on the fly package download, e.g. no problems with install.packages("ggplot2")

Ų  I've also tried using "setInternet2(TRUE)" before the above, which made no difference

Ų  I've also tried using: "options(timeout=300)" before the install.packages command, in order to attempt to force a five-minute window ; this had no affect

Ų  The target file does exist on Bristol's servers if you search for the website using internet explorer

Ų  I can download the package manually (although our security measures spend some time scanning this particular package).  Once saved locally, I successfully run install.packages to load the file from the local drive, but that's hardly the way forward if I want to keep things up to date!

Ų  I have tried Imperial College's server, which also fails, so it's not a mirror issue.

Ų  I have run the same code at home to the same Bristol mirror and get no issues.

A bit stuck, therefore!


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