php5 and mysql 4.1 - Authentication

Hi there, I am sure there has been a discussion about this previously, I couldn't find much through google though . anyway. I know I must use mysqli, and that is also not the problem. The problem is with things like phpmyadmin and bxcms. I am not going through all the code to fix the mysql connections. Is there no way I can tell MySQL4.1.6 to accept http authentication? This seems to be the overall problem, because it foes not even find the right access password once a connection is establishes (using the OLD_PASSWORD() function). Thomas