Problems installing packages using the inbuilt facility: "Error i n gzfile(file, "r") : unable to open connection"

url <- "http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.6/ada_2.0-1.zip";
download.file(url, basename(url), mode="wb")  # Note "wb"!!!

file.info(basename(url))

install.packages(basename(url), repos=NULL)

library(ada)

Hi

 I have been trawling the web, FAQs, and R manuals for help on the following issue, but have failed and was wondering if anyone has a solution to the following problem:

 After having installed R 2.6.2 for Windows (binary), I tried to install various packages. Every time I try loading a package (any package) via the built-in menu, I run into the following error message.

 > utils:::menuInstallPkgs()

 trying URL 'http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.6/ada_2.0-1.zip <http://cran.uk.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.6/ada_2.0-1.zip> '
 Content type 'application/zip' length 971893 bytes (949 Kb)
 opened URL
 downloaded 949 Kb

 Warning in gzfile(file, "r") :
  cannot open compressed file 'ada/DESCRIPTION', probable reason 'No such file or directory'
 Error in gzfile(file, "r") : unable to open connection

 > traceback()

 6: gzfile(file, "r")
 5: read.dcf(file.path(curPkg, "DESCRIPTION"), c("Package", "Version",
       "Type"))
 4: unpackPkg(foundpkgs[okp, 2], foundpkgs[okp, 1], lib, installWithVers)
 3: .install.winbinary(pkgs = pkgs, lib = lib, contriburl = contriburl,
       method = method, available = available, destdir = destdir,
       installWithVers = installWithVers, dependencies = dependencies)
 2: install.packages(NULL, .libPaths()[1], dependencies = NA, type = type)
 1: utils:::menuInstallPkgs()

 I tried saving the ZIP  of the package to my C drive, and then installing from that, but I get the same error message. I then tried calling gzfile with the filename of the ZIP directly, and I seem to get a file handle without any error message:

 gzfile("C:/Program Files/R/R-2.6.2/library/ada_2.0-1.zip","r")
                                       description                                              class
 "C:/Program Files/R/R-2.6.2/library/ada_2.0-1.zip"                                           "gzfile"
                                              mode                                               text
                                             "rb6"                                           "binary"
                                            opened                                           can read
                                          "opened"                                              "yes"
                                         can write
                                              "no"



 It might be worth noting, that I initially I also had problems with the internet download facility, which I fixed starting R with the flag --internet2, as indicated in the FAQs.

 Can you please help?

 Many thanks - Philipp

 PS: I did the same on my PC at home, and there everything works without problems.


 ==============================================================================
 Please access the attached hyperlink for an important el...{{dropped:8}}