Paypal IPN and Express Checkout problems

I have been fighting this problem since we upgraded to 1.3.9h. We can get neither Paypal IPN nor Express Checkouts to finalize an order in Zen Cart. Paypal accepts payment using IPN method, but no order is recorded. Express Checkout sends us into a weird checkout loop that never gets to Paypal.

We have no custom modules or modifications, using a simple free template designed for 1.3.9.

The logs seem to show a cURL connection error (7), but all checks show cURL is installed with SSL and functioning properly. I checked from within zc, from phpMyAdmin, and from the command line. Server logs show Paypal hitting the IPN handler OK with code 200.

http://getintuitive.com/phinf.php

https://secure59.elinuxservers.com/~getin6/zc/ipncheck.php

We'd be pleased if someone could help sort out this problem so we can get back to enjoying zen cart and our lives.

The zen cart paypal log entries for our most recent tests are here.
http://getintuitive.com/zc_logs/

Thanks.

Tim Foelker
Professional Techworks, LLC

Well, it appears that there was a proxy defined in the My Store configuration. Removing that seems to have rectified the situation at least for Payments Standard IPN. Funny that nobody knows why or when that proxy was defined in the setup. In the end these forums helped me check all the settings so it's all good.