Problem getting gems/listing gems. EINVAL

Environment:
rubygems 0.9.0
ruby 1.8.4
OS NT 4 sp6

Problem:
Upon trying to install a gem or list from either rubyforge or why’s
site I recieve this error message
Exception `Errno::EINVAL’ at
I:/PROGRAMS/Scripting/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:176 - Invalid
argument
ERROR: While executing gem … (Errno::EINVAL)

Some Diagnostics:
Examing code and a few well placed print statements I discover this
exception is generated when the application first trys to write to the
Socket. Connecting by hand and sending the same string returns in
a 200 ie using “telnet code.whytheluckystiff.net 80” then typing in
the header returns a 200.

Thanks in advance.