CPAN ncftp problem

[krigare]

CPAN 1.76
ncftp 3.1.7
Redhat 9

I am behind a firewall.
I do have ncftp configured to handle the firewall settings. In fact I
can manually (from the command line) do:
#> ncftpget ftp.sedl.org/pub/mirrors/CPAN/MIRRORED.BY
(The above command works fine)

But when running cpan, ncftpget displays the usage info page, as if it
is getting the wrong flags or parameters or as if you did an
#> ncftpget -h
(this will display the usage info and that is what CPAN is getting)

I do have CPAN working fine on Solaris 8, with ncftp 3.1.6. So I know it
can work, but for some reason on the RedHat server it will not.

Any suggestions?

TIA!!