First, please pardon my ignorance; I'm only vaguely familiar with
Squid/what it does, but knowledge-less on *how* it does it,
configuring, details, etc. :)

Seems our corporate Squid Proxy may be set up in a manner that
prevents Python/urllib2 from working-with/going-through.

See my first and second Py-group posts for some additional info:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/44775994a6b55161...#

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/9b7dc89755eadba9...#

Seems that "standard" authentication works fine (many people I've seen
posts of have had no problem doing what I've already tried).

So my question would be: any settings/configuration I might ask my net
admin about to help figure out my issue(s) and rectify them? (Our
proxy's working fine, and has had no problems. The only problem right
now is the inability of me to get Python programs to negotiate-with
properly and see the "outside world".)

Windows XP 64-bit, Py 2.5.2, don't know the Squid version, but can
find out. All other programs on my system work fine (with the
Internet).