If it is using http authentication, you can use the format of http://user:password@joe.com?restofurl
You can use httpclient for this kind of thing:
require 'rubygems' require 'httpclient'
url = "http://joe.com/find?word=#\{word\}&lb=1&user=joe" client = HTTPClient.new client.debug_dev = STDOUT if $DEBUG client.set_auth(url, 'joe', 'thePassw0rd') resp = client.get(url) @page = resp.content
You might have to make the first arg to .set_auth be just the URL without the query string.
Also, if the service doesn't send back an authorization request (which it sounds like it does since the browser asks you), then HTTPClient won't volunteer the credentials you've provided.
You can check things like if resp.status != 200
-Rob
Rob Biedenharn http://agileconsultingllc.com Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com