Pidgin: Using Gaim Portable with Novell

I am having trouble using Gaim Portable with my office computer that runs Novell and GroupWise. Previously, I could not use regular Gaim with my office computer, but was able to download, install and use Yahoo Messenger through Port 80. A recent change by our IT folks has rendered YM unusuable. So, I went to Gaim Portable on my flash drive. (I use Gaim exclusively on my home computers.) For both YM and Gaim Portable I get a message that it could not connect -- or, sometimes, that I am disconnected (before I even knew I was connected). Can anyone help? Thank you!