urllib & browser proxy settings

I am running a medusa bases server, which spawns a copy process which
reports back it's status using urllib as below

        try:
            f = urllib.urlopen("http://localhost:8088/root/copyresult"
, params)
            print f.read()
        except:
            print "could't tell copyresult server I'm initializing %s
,%s %s " % (item,sys.exc_type,sys.exc_value)
        print 'Attempting to Copy %s to %s' %(values[1],values[2])

This is all works very well and life is a sea of tranquility and
programming is fun (see threads passim.)

However when the server is used in the presence of a system which has
the browser proxy setting activated (mozilla or IE) It fails with
"Software caused connection abort". However the 'normal' functions of
the server continue properly. I have tried changing the localhost to
127.0.0.1 all to no avail.

Perhaps this isn't really a python question since it is activated by a
change in the machine configuration but I would really benefit from a
solution as clients will of course be running in an environment that
uses a proxy setting and I don't like being laughed at. (except by you
lot obviously).