> Hi Jano,
> Thanks a lot for your time.
>
> Just to put things in perspective..the eruby error springs up even when
> i run the script from the command prompt. Thats the reason i have
> stopped doubting apache now.
> So, i shall first check firewall settings and dns settings.
> Do you know of some website where i can find more info on this problem ?

In april, there was similar problem in the thread "eruby & Mechanize
error" unfortunately without answer.
I have tried your script under xp and it does not work either.

What worked for me: use erb or erubis instead of eruby. Erubis may be
even faster, though I won't tell
you how to plug it into apache.

It seems that eruby's build (eruby-1.0.5-i386-mswin32-1.8.zip) has
compatibility problem with current ruby (1.8.6-p111)