[MiKTeX] MikTeX 2.7 | package manager sync prob...

[Evan C. <co...@ve...>]

Greetings -

Been using 2.7 for a while now, with nary a problem, but over the past 
few days, I've been completely unable to download/install new packages 
off the net using the package manager. Whenever I try to do so, I get 
the following error:

Not a valid remote package repository.

Here is an example of the error message in full:

MiKTeX Problem Report
Message: Not a valid remote package repository.
Data: ftp://ctan.cms.math.ca/tex-archive/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/
Source: 
C:\work3\miktex-2.7\Libraries\MiKTeX\PackageManager\PackageManager.cpp
Line: 2076
MiKTeX: 2.7
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)

<bunch of irrelevant stuff clipped>

Now, what really surprised me is that I get this error for all (100%) of 
the repositories that are listed (yes, I actually tried every single one 
of them).

What really puzzles me, though, is that the update utility seems to work 
fine, for every repository that I tried it against. I simply cannot get 
the pacakge manager to 'play nice' with *any* of the repositories.

This suggest something somewhere is corrupted, or otherwise 'broken'. 
I've tried refreshing FNDB, but that didn't help.

Suggestions?

Thanks. The inability to use the package manager to download/manage 
packages is a real pain. I can't afford the time needed for a full 
re-install of 2.7, so I'm hoping someone can help.

Thanks in advance...