Postgres 7.1-2 repeatedly fails to connect

Question 1

I am able to install and initdb Postgres. But whenever I try to run psql or
createdb, it fails and I get the message below.

The part which starts 'backend closed the channel....' always comes up with
rest of the message varying depending on the message.

psql: pqReadData() -- backend closed the channel unexpectedly.
This probably means the backend terminated abnormally
before or while processing the request.
createdb: database creation failed
pq_flush: send<> failed: The connection was aborted
pq_recvbuf: recv() failed: errno

Question 2

My postgresql.conf file is completely commented out.

Can anyone show me a sample which will at least allow connection via TCP/IP?

Could it be the reason why the commands above are not working? I execute
these commands from the cygwin console.

Thanks

Richard

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