I have a copy of debian/dists/unstable on my hard disk .... I am too dumb to understand how to specify the correct string in /etc/apt/sources.list so that apt will use this source instead of the HTTP sites (to which I have no connectivity). BTW I tried setting the $http_proxy environment var but also this task is too daunting for me 8-<<< Tried export $http_proxy=http://9.87.251.63:8080/ Thank you. Bob