Akismet and cURL

My host requires me to use a proxy for outgoing connections. I need to use CURL to connect, and I’m pretty sure that this is why Akismet hasn’t been working for me. I have never used CURL and I couldn’t even guess as to how to modify Akismet (or is there a more general way to modify WP outgoing connections?) so that it will continue to check my comments. Does anyone have any suggestions?