WIP: Connection fails with forward proxy

[jefferya]

When a forward proxy is required to connect to the outside world, the connection fails.

Usecase: server has a non-routeable IP and needs to connect to a forward proxy server to reach the outside world.

export http_proxy="http://remote_server:{port}/"
export https_proxy="http://remote_server:{port}/"

For a curl test, set the above env vars.

Found the following which alludes to why the environment variables
specifying the proxy uri are not functioning in ruby:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15792999/how-to-set-a-proxy-in-rubys-net-http#comment65922586_23778707

Possible better way:

https://yukimotopress.github.io/http

more details in e-mail conversation: circa 2019-04-24