How do you get libcurl libraries to work with InstantRails? - ruby-on-rails

Question

I'm working on a windows machine and trying to get the curb plugin to work, first thing I realized was I needed the curl library installed on my machine, so that's what I'm looking to do.
I simply downloaded a curl library, a curllib library, and have them located at c:/curl and c:/curllib respectively. I setup my environmental variables, I can execute curl.exe and that works like a beaut. However, my gem still fails with the following.
C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb install curb
checking for curl-config... no
checking for main() in curl.lib... no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.
Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=C:/InstantRails/ruby/bin/ruby
--with-curl-dir
--with-curl-include
--without-curl-include=${curl-dir}/include
--with-curl-lib
--without-curl-lib=${curl-dir}/lib
--with-curllib
--without-curllib
extconf.rb:9: Can't find libcurl or curl/curl.h (RuntimeError)
Try passing --with-curl-dir or --with-curl-lib and --with-curl-include
options to extconf.
Gem files will remain installed in C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/curb-0.4.4.0 for inspection.
Results logged to C:/InstantRails/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/curb-0.4.4.0/ext/gem_make.out
Anybody have any ideas?

Answer 1

This ends up to be the best tutorial to get the job done.
http://www.opiumtrail.com/wiki/CurbForWindows/
Things to note:
I compiled using MSVC6, so the
additional steps he had explained for
using a different version didn't
apply.
I had to use the exact gem and libcurl specified on his tutorial
You can probably accomplish what you need using the included HTTP:NET library, in my case I couldn't figure it out using that library.