Why am I getting an error while downloading Melpa packages in Emacs on Win7 OS

Question

I am using Emacs on a Win7 machine. I have added the Melpa repo. in init.el. When I do M-x list-packages, I do get a buffer listing the packages from Melpa.

But, when i try to download them, I get an error:

open-network-stream: make client process failed: connection timed out, :name, melpa.milkbox.net, :buffer, #<killed buffer>, :host, melpa.milkbox.net, :service, 80, :nowait, nil...

Please note that I am using Emacs behind a corporate proxy. Emacs is able to download the list of packages but not able to install any.

Please find below snippet from my init.el:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
         '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives
         '("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/") t)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
     '("gnu" . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))

(package-initialize)

;; line numbers in emacs everywhere
(global-linum-mode t)

(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font "Consolas-12")

;; set proxy
(defun proxy-activate ()
 (interactive)

 (let ((proxy "unrealproxy:8080") (credentials      "unrealusername:unrealpwd"))
 (setq url-proxy-services
  `(("no_proxy" . "^\\(localhost\\|10.*\\)")
   ("http" . ,proxy)
   ("https" . ,proxy)))

 (setq url-http-proxy-basic-auth-storage
  (list (list proxy
            (cons "Input your LDAP UID !"
                  (base64-encode-string credentials)))))))

 (provide 'proxy-activate)

Answer 1

MELPA moved to melpa.org, so use this in your .emacs:

(add-to-list 'package-archives
         '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/") t)

Answer 2

I know this is really old, but in case this helps someone else, as of November 2020, Melba is now located at http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages:

(add-to-list 'package-archives
         '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))

Reference: https://melpa.org/#/getting-started